An earmark oops: Wrong nonprofit named in budget

The rush to insert earmarks in the final budget sometimes leads to errors.

A $50,000 allocation to move a historic house in Harnett County was directed to the wrong nonprofit. At the request of Republican Sen. Ronald Rabin, the Averasboro Battlefield Commission is due for a check to purchase and move the Shaw Halfway House.

The only problem? The battlefield commission isn’t the nonprofit seeking to move the house.

Commission president Mac Williams said he was surprised to get a call from the state budget office about the allocation.

“I certainly have not been consulted at all about the Shaw House restoration,” he said. “I have no idea how it got mixed up with the Averasboro Battlefield.”

Rabin admits that he made a mistake in naming the group. A different nonprofit, the Averasboro Town Restoration Association, Inc., is working to save the house. Averasboro Battlefield is named for the Averasboro settlement several miles away.

“I had worked with both groups, and I didn’t realize they had separate groups,” Rabin said.

Now Rabin plans to meet with both nonprofits to “see how we can legally use the funds and get the thing done.”

“If I can’t, then I would get the technical correction (to the budget item) in the short session in April,” he said. “Hopefully the house will hold together until then. It’s getting to a fairly critical state.”

Rabin said the house, which dates to the 1700s, is worth saving because it housed Civil War soldiers, and their names are still written on the ceiling.

“It’s in disrepair, for sure, but it’s part of the history of the state,” he said.

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 3:02 PM with the headline "An earmark oops: Wrong nonprofit named in budget."