He has described himself as an entrepreneur who likes to solve problems that the traditional health care system struggles to address.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In an interview before Hall filed his complaint, Estramonte said the center became a passion project for him when he learned about children waiting for <\/a>weeks<\/a> in emergency rooms<\/a> because of a shortage of psychiatric beds.\u00a0<\/p>\n The issue became personal, he said, after several close friends struggled to find treatment for their children.<\/p>\n A surge in political giving<\/p>\n Hall, the retired executive director of Democracy NC, has spent decades combing through campaign finance reports and filing formal complaints when he finds irregularities. His complaints have prompted investigations and resulted in consequences for members of both parties, including former Democratic House Speaker Jim Black and former Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hall said the size of the state\u2019s investment in a private facility prompted him to take a closer look at contributions that could be tied to the project. He argues that the $35 million for the Katie Blessing Center could have been directed to other pressing health care needs, such as supporting rural hospitals and clinics.<\/p>\n Hall\u2019s analysis of public records shows that giving by Estramonte, his family members and 13 Starmount associates and their relatives \u2014 most of whom have no previous record of contributing to a North Carolina political campaign \u2014 totaled $931,308 between 2023 and 2026.<\/p>\n Among the named donors are Estramonte\u2019s mother, Kathleen Rooney (Katie Blessing Rooney, for whom the center is named), who is listed as giving $59,000; the daughter of a Starmount human resources director, identified in the records as a yoga and meditation app employee, who is listed as giving $21,200; and Estramonte\u2019s executive assistant, who is shown as giving $10,650.\u00a0<\/p>\n The contributions sometimes arrived in clusters. For example, on April 17, 2023, 13 Estramonte relatives, employees and associates are listed as giving $6,400 to Democrat Gov. Josh Stein. And on March 21, 2024, Estramonte and five people connected to him are listed as giving $6,400 each to former Republican Rep. Jason Saine, who at the time was senior chair of the House Appropriations Committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n Asked about those dates, Estramonte said he hosted fundraising events where multiple people made contributions. \u201cI did not direct or require anyone who worked for me or any of my family to make a contribution or dictate the amount of any contribution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Contributions coincided with funding<\/p>\n Stein was the largest single recipient ($209,000), but top Republican legislative leaders also received substantial sums, including Saine ($102,000), Sen. Michael Lee ($74,000), House Speaker Destin Hall ($69,000), Senate leader Phil Berger ($65,000) and Sen. Dave Craven ($56,000).\u00a0<\/p>\n Estramonte\u2019s companies also began hiring lobbyists in 2023. Starmount Management spent $97,771 on six contract lobbyists that year, according to state records, and $142,508 on seven lobbyists in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n The increase in lobbying and political giving coincided with a series of public funding decisions. State lawmakers awarded $5 million to the Katie Blessing Center in 2023-24 and $12.5 million in 2024-25<\/a>, before allocating another $17.7 million in their most<\/a> recent budget<\/a>, which was signed into law this month. The center also received $2.5 million from the city of Charlotte and $2 million from Mecklenburg County in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sen. Woodson Bradley, a Mecklenburg Democrat who advocated for state funding for the center, said she was still “very surprised” by the size of its funding allocation when she first saw the Republican-crafted budget. She said the money for the center was one reason she voted for the spending plan, adding that the facility will be “life-changing for families.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Filling a gap<\/p>\n Estramonte said he spent months explaining to state lawmakers why North Carolina needed more pediatric psychiatric beds and how a public-private partnership would stretch public dollars.\u00a0 <\/p>\n \u201cThey loved the project,\u201d he said, adding that the center’s foundation invested $20 million of its own money in the center. <\/p>\n He said it\u2019s not surprising that the center got state funding because it aligns with the state\u2019s long-standing push to expand access to mental health services<\/a>.<\/p>\n Estramonte said the facility won\u2019t just serve Charlotte but will be a statewide resource, with about half of its residential patients expected to come from outside the region and an estimated 50 percent to 70 percent of patients covered by Medicaid.\u00a0<\/p>\n The center has agreed to treat some of the state\u2019s most difficult psychiatric cases, he said \u2014 the children the state has the most trouble placing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Do contributions influence votes?\u00a0<\/p>\n Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, said it\u2019s not unusual for organizations to hire lobbyists and make campaign contributions when they are seeking public funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n While those activities are legal, he said, they raise broader questions about whether large donations help some interests get more attention than others from lawmakers.<\/p>\n Research suggests campaign contributions rarely change how a lawmaker votes, he said. Instead, they can help get an issue on a lawmaker\u2019s radar and encourage them to champion it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to find evidence of vote buying,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we do find is that you\u2019re moving that person from a passive supporter to an active supporter more likely to advocate for issues important to you.\u201d<\/p>\n Jane Pinsky, former director of the NC Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform, said people who make campaign contributions have long been favored by N.C. lawmakers.<\/p>\n \u201cYou give enough campaign money, you get something,\u201d she said. \u201cAverage citizens need to realize that this is our money being spent.\u201d<\/p>\n If the state needed a new psychiatric facility, she said, it should have put the project out for bid and considered multiple proposals.<\/p>\n Rep. Carla Cunningham \u2014 a Mecklenburg Democrat who campaign finance records show received $15,000 from Estramonte and about $6,000 from his family members and employees \u2014 said those gifts had nothing to do with her support for the center.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe need the beds,\u201d she said, adding that 300 to 400 North Carolina children are forced out of state every year for psychiatric care. \u201cThis isn\u2019t just a problem in Mecklenburg but in the entire state. I\u2019m a parent. I know what that experience is to be at the emergency psychiatric triage and they don\u2019t have a bed, or they have a bed two or three hours away from home.\u201d<\/p>\n This article is part of a partnership between The Charlotte Ledger and North Carolina Health News to produce\u00a0original health care reporting<\/a>. You can support this effort with\u00a0a tax-deductible donation.<\/a><\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on North Carolina Health News<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cropped-favicon02.jpg\")
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