State Rep. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, is sponsoring legislation that would change how the state parcels out funds to combat domestic violence.

This bill apparently is tied to local issues involving a dissolved domestic violence/sexual assault shelter in Washington.

In a recent interview, Cook said the bill would simplify the “nightmarish organization of how money gets from the state and other funding sources to domestic violence providers.”

If the bill passes the Republican-controlled House and Senate, and is signed into law by Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue, it will place more control over domestic violence programs in the hands of county commissioners.

Diana Lucas is executive director of the Greenville-based Center for Family Violence Prevention. The center aids domestic violence victims in Pitt, Martin, Beaufort and Washington counties.

Lucas said the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence opposes House Bill 757.

The coalition represents more than 90 member programs statewide, its website reads.

A call to the coalition wasn’t immediately returned Thursday.

“Running the money through a local government source, it will vary from county to county how it could be used,” Lucas said. “That concerns us all.”

Filed in April, House Bill 757 reportedly has been the subject of lobbying efforts by at least three Beaufort County Republicans, among them Delma Blinson, who said he and two other tea party advocates traveled to Raleigh on Wednesday to push for the measure’s passage.

“This is mostly my baby,” said Cook, the bill’s primary sponsor.

“In Beaufort County currently, we do not have a shelter for battered women, which is an abomination,” he pointed out.

Cook blamed the closure of Beaufort County’s shelter on decisions by “some bureaucrat in Raleigh.”

Though he declined to weigh in on the politics of the issue, Washington police Chief Mick Reed said there is a “desperate need” for domestic violence services in Beaufort County.

Reed is aware that some domestic violence victims have been forced to shelter overnight in the police department’s lobby.

“We ran out of options,” he said.

This happened when the Pitt County shelter was full, according to the chief.

“My position is that in my opinion Beaufort County and the city of Washington is in desperate need of these kinds of services,” he said.

Lucas said the Pitt County shelter has a capacity of 22 women and children, and she confirmed the shelter fills to capacity occasionally.

The shelter isn’t equipped to house homeless victims of domestic violence, she said.

Staff refers clients for whom there is no room to safe havens in neighboring communities, she said.

“Shelters are full all over the state,” Lucas said.

She added her board’s goal is to help Beaufort County open its own shelter, but that this will require a commitment of local matching money.

The center is working with Martin and Washington counties to develop their own shelters, and it wants to do the same for Beaufort County, she said.

“That’s my intention and it’s always been our intention, but we have to get local support,” Lucas observed.

Lucas said she spoke to the Beaufort County commissioners about this topic last year, and she recently requested a meeting with Beaufort County Manager Paul Spruill.

Lucas said she had spoken with Cook about House Bill 757, and, at his request, emailed him information on the topic at hand.

Blinson, who was part of the informal, citizen committee that proposed House Bill 757 to Cook, is optimistic the bill will become law.

Blinson is the former board president of the now-defunct Options to Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, which served Hyde, Martin, Tyrrell, Beaufort and Washington counties.

The Washington-based Options closed in the summer of 2009 following a funding dispute with the state.

Options lost portions of its funding after the state said it should be repaid around $50,000 because of alleged improper spending.

House Bill 757 would combine two state commissions — the Council for Women and the Domestic Violence Commission — for economic efficiencies and to prevent overlap, Blinson said.

The bill would direct all state money for domestic violence into one fund and institute a formula for dividing this money among counties.

“That would take all of the political shenanigans out of deciding who gets what money and who gets which service,” Cook said.

Each county’s board of commissioners would determine which nonprofit entities its county would contract with to deliver these services, Blinson said.

Commissioners could choose their county’s health department or department of social services to be the service provider, he explained.

Blinson agreed involving county commissioners in the delivery of these services could politicize the process, but he argued it wouldn’t be any more political than it is now.

“The positive side of it is that it makes the delivery of the program and the use of the money, it makes it accountable locally,” he said.

At last report, House Bill 757 had been referred to the House appropriations committee.

Cook hoped the bill would be brought out of committee this week or next week.

“I need as much support as I can get on this,” he said. “I’m swimming upstream. The political winds will be blowing against me on this.”