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Since its formation in 2022, Progressive Land Developers CDC of Harrisburg has never taken in more than $50,000 a year, federal tax records show. The nonprofit’s incorporation papers describe it as serving the needs of disenfranchised communities.
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This year, the community development corporation became a big winner in the state budget. On Page 490 of the budget’s 716-page spending report is a $1 million appropriation for the group, with no explanation for how the money would be used.
It was requested by state Rep. Nasif Majeed, a Charlotte lawmaker who had been a Democrat until he lost a primary election and is now unaffiliated. The nonprofit’s incorporation papers list Majeed as a member of its board, but the statements of economic interest he filed with the State Ethics Commission do not show it.
When The News & Observer inquired about the appropriation with the Office of State Budget and Management, which manages these “directed grants” from lawmakers, a deputy director said he will take a closer look before releasing the money.
“I need to explore guidance from the State Ethics Commission to see if this is allowable or not from their perspective,” said budget office Deputy Director Michael Arnold in an email response to The N&O.
In an interview, Majeed said he left the board last year and is not in any position to profit off of the appropriation. He said he merely asked for the money in response to an email House budget writers sent out to all members for their spending requests.
Ibn Tamir Abdul Mutakabbir, the board’s chairman, also said Majeed left late last year. The nonprofit has struggled in recent years, Mutakabbir said. The previous chairman died two years ago after a battle with cancer.
Since then, there has been board turnover as the nonprofit sought to regroup, he said. The nonprofit will soon embark on a plan with the neighborhood’s input to use the grant to serve the community, Mutakabbir said.
He mentioned needs the nonprofit is already providing, such as feeding the poor, job training, after school care and drug counseling.
The nonprofit, which is in Majeed’s district, had not asked for the money, Mutakabbir said.
Majeed and Mutakabbir didn’t learn the nonprofit had won the $1 million appropriation until an N&O reporter called them this week, they said.
“It’s a godsend and pretty much a modern-day miracle for us,” Mutakabbir said. “We plan to do right by it and dot all our Is and cross all our Ts to do right by it.”
As for the nonprofit not being listed on Majeed’s annual statements of economic interest, he chalked that up to an oversight.
“I just missed that,” he said. “I must have missed that.”
So how did Majeed’s request survive when so many other lawmakers – particularly House Democrats who are in the minority – failed in theirs? Rep. Donny Lambeth, a senior budget writer, could only point to the House speaker’s office.
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After talking with legislative staff, he said in a text to The N&O: “Best we can track down it was a budget item added when the leadership got together for their final additions and resolution of any open items the Joint (Appropriations) Chairs could not resolve.”
House Speaker Destin Hall was not available for comment, his spokeswoman Demi Dowdy said. She offered no further information about the spending.
Majeed lost the primary in March after being targeted by Democratic leaders for supporting overrides of Gov. Josh Stein’s vetoes on two bills. One dealt with sexuality and religion in schools and libraries; the other gave Duke Energy more latitude in charging customers and more wiggle room to achieve a carbon emission reduction target. Since the primary, he has also voted with Republicans to bypass another veto allowing tax breaks for donations to groups that give school scholarships.
Majeed said his votes aiding Republicans were not discussed as he sought the $1 million appropriation.
In recent years, the state legislature, which has been controlled by Republicans since 2011, has approved tens of millions of dollars in spending in budgets that circumvented what had been the standard, publicly accessible process of budget making.
The typical process involved the House and the Senate each developing a budget bill that was introduced and voted on in committees and then on the floors of both chambers, providing several opportunities for changes. When it came time to settle differences, both chambers agreed not to include new items in a final compromise budget bill.
But in the past several years, legislative leaders have either introduced new spending and policy provisions in the final version of the budget bill, or avoided producing budget proposals in each chamber. The end result is rank-and-file lawmakers typically have no more than two or three days to review these massive spending documents and can only vote for or against. No changes can be made.
Days after lawmakers approved this year’s budget, they ran another bill that redirected a $300,000 budget appropriation for a gated lakefront community in Harnett County to the county. This came after Carolina Journal reported that residents there said the grant was sought by Rep. Joe Pike, a Republican who lives in the community.
Since 2024, The N&O, as part of its Power & Secrecy series, has reported other examples of spending that benefited lawmakers or their allies. In several cases, the spending reached the tens of millions of dollars.
Some lawmakers have called for more transparency, but legislative leaders have made little effort to provide it.
“The public gets to see every vote that we take,” Hall, a Caldwell County Republican, told The N&O last year. “They get to hear the debate on it and every vote that we take here is public just like it is in Congress.”
This story was originally published September 26, 2026 at 9:15 AM with the headline “How a Charlotte-area nonprofit won $1M in state budget — without asking for it.”
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