Published July 29, 2026 at 1:33 PM EDT

The N.C. Senate has passed a bill that would take back a budget allocation for a lawmaker's gated community.

The state budget included hundreds of earmarks for local organizations and projects, many of them in counties represented by Republicans.

One of them was a $300,000 grant to the Carolina Lakes Property Owners Association in Harnett County. The money was for repairing a shelter and for unspecified "emergency services needs" in the gated lakefront community between Sanford and Fayetteville.

The neighborhood is home to Republican Rep. Joe Pike, who has listed a home address there in his campaign and voting records since he was first elected in 2022.

After the Carolina Journal reported on Pike's connection to the budget grant, a new budget corrections bill passed in the Senate Wednesday that would take the money back.

If the House passes the bill next week, the $300,000 will instead be sent to Harnett County government for "any public purpose," the bill says.

Senate leader Phil Berger says the neighborhood funding wasn't appropriate. "That provision never should have made it into the budget itself," he told reporters Wednesday.

Pike did not respond to an email and phone call from WUNC News about the grant. He is a second-term legislator who serves as chairman of the House Homeland Security and Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. He co-sponsored a bill earlier this session that calls for more oversight of homeowners' associations.

The budget corrections bill is the latest in a series of legislation that makes changes to the spending plan passed earlier this month. Many of the provisions in the bills include policy changes and new spending that goes well beyond fixing mistakes and typos.

Another provision in the latest bill would give drivers the option to choose a new "America 250" license plate without paying the additional specialty plate fee. The license plate design honoring the country's 250th birthday would become one of the standard options along with the "First in Flight," "First In Freedom" and state motto designs.