While we’re in the mood to, um, “tell the truth” …

Posted on by

North Carolina politics is abuzz over former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson‘s YouTube confession about his reported porn addiction and attempts to cover it up.  The porn story upended his 2024 gubernatorial campaign and resulted in one of the most spectacular crash-and-burn finales in state political history.

The drive-by media and most politicos were most excited and focused on the porn story — mainly because it’s a definite audience-grabber, and easy to report and to comprehend. 

The porn angle is not that exciting to us on this site.  If you went after every *skeevy perv* porn-watcher currently roaming the North Carolina political landscape, it would look like the surface of the moon.  Nary a soul in sight.

The Robinson video is clearly part of a plan to politically revive Robinson — to cause a “We forgive you” moment among his religious Right followers.  I’ve heard talk from folks in-the-know about Robinson eyeing a US House seat.  I’ve heard it specifically in connection to the 5th district seat currently held by Virginia Foxx. 

Before the “alleluia” chorus kicks in, we’d like to ask:  What about all of the lingering questions about Balanced Nutrition and its handling of taxpayer money?  Can we have some truth / clarification about that?

We’ve got a link to the entire Balanced Nutrition series at the top of the page and right here.  It was a non-profit founded by Robinson’s wife, Yolanda Hill, to receive and distribute federal funds meant to reimburse day care centers for their food expenses.

Reading about all of the scandals in Minnesota evokes a sense of familiarity to those of us who have been following the Balanced Nutrition saga.  A lot of that stuff in Minnesota involves a lot of the same federal programs related to Balanced Nutrition and groups like it in NC. 

Robinson, his wife, their son, their daughter, Yolanda’s sister, and Yolanda’s mother have all appeared on paper as employees at one time or another during the non-profit’s 2017-2024 operation period. We found serious discrepancies in Balanced Nutrition‘s financial paperwork.  (Yolanda Hill, who was running the company, is a degreed accountant. )

We tried to get answers about said discrepancies from Mark Robinson’s official and campaign staffs.  Both entities ignored us.  We got the same result from our attempts to reach Hill.

Shortly before the 2024 gubernatorial primary, Hill decided to fold up the company.  An exit interview / financial review – focusing mainly on the first quarter of 2024 — found that $132,118.86 in taxpayer funds had been improperly distributed to Balanced Nutrition.  It needed to be paid back.

For the record, we found discrepancies throughout the company’s lifetime.  One can only imagine how much BIGGER the discrepancy figure could get if the financial review covered Balanced Nutrition’s entire lifespan. 

There were many appeals.  A settlement on the Robinson’s amount owed to the state was reached – a lower figure of $101,142.05.  The collection effort was turned over to Jeff Jackson and the NC Department of Justice – where the matter has disappeared into a black hole.

Here are some of the more important questions that still linger for us:

    • The COVID-era PPP loans/ grants.  Balanced Nutrition applied for and received TWO of these federal loans totalling $56,922. We could not find any evidence indicating that the non-profit actually met the standards for qualifying for this money.  Can Mark Robinson share that documentation with us AND the people of North Carolina?  Or perhaps even pay that money back, if it was indeed obtained improperly? 
    • Failure to ID people on payroll as family members.  We found multiple filings to the IRS signed by Yolanda Hill where a box was specifically checked declaring no one on the employee payroll was a family member.  Again, at one time or another,  Mark Robinson, Yolanda, their son and daughter,  and Yolanda’s mother all appeared on paperwork filed with the IRS identified as employees of Balanced Nutrition.  We can understand one typo / screw-up like this, but multiple ones over multiple years ???
    • Who paid for the luxury beachfront house in Virginia Beach:  While Mark was lieutenant governor, he and his wife boasted on social media about their stay in a huge, grand beachfront property in Virginia Beach.  It was a rental property listed by an out-of-state couple who claimed not to know Mark and Yolanda.  The weekly rental rate for the property was $30,000.  First, that appears to be outside Robinson’s means.  Second, it was not listed anywhere as a gift or donation.   We asked Robinson’s official office for comment on this story, and were ignored.  Who provided the house? Did the Robinson’s actually pay for it themselves ??? If so, where did the money to do that come from?  Also, WHY is the Lt. Governor of North Carolina vacationing in Virginia? 
    • IRS filings.  I can’t think of anyone or anything worse to get caught lying to or misleading.  Non-profits like Balanced Nutrition are required to file a Form 990 with the IRS for every year of operation. Balanced Nutrition was not closed down until 2024.  Yet, we can only find 990s on file for the non-profit through 2022.  Here we are in 2026.  We’ve tried contacting Yolanda about the missing two years.  Of course, no comment.   The filings we did find contained figures inconsistent with previous years’ reporting. Can we get those discrepancies cleared up?  Can we see the filings — and financial reporting – from 2023 and 2024?  After all, it is taxpayer (read: OUR) money. 
    • Failure to file payroll taxes.  We could only find evidence that – from 2017 to 2022 — Balanced Nutrition paid payroll taxes just ONE TIME. The IRS likes to see that done every year that salaries are paid.   What happened here?

We’re big fans of telling the truth. It’s just that – around here – responsible use of taxpayer money outweighs the viewing of dirty pics and movies BIG TIME.