In June 2013, Cobb-Hunter was involved in sponsoring a $200,000 earmark for a nonprofit organization called CASA Family Systems, of which Cobb-Hunter is an executive director, in South Carolina’s 2013-14 proposed state budget. The earmark would constitute more than 25% of the organization’s average annual revenues over the past two fiscal years, if passed. Cobb-Hunter responded by email to The Nerve, which broke the story, and affirmed her sponsorship of the earmark but added, "I don’t see it as a conflict of interest and believe full disclosure of the funding puts it out there for all to see." Cobb-Hunter voted in favor of a budget amendment that contained the earmark, but she said that her June 5th vote for that measure "was in error" and that she "should’ve abstained." As reported by The Nerve, a project of the South Carolina Policy Council, Cobb-Hunter said that her abstaining from a March 2013 vote on the original version of the House budget was consistent with the rules, even though South Carolina state law permits legislators a vote on the whole budget even after prior recusals on individual budget sections, “which means that they, in effect, are approving appropriations for those agencies where conflicts of interest exist or potentially exist.” No accusations of wrong-doing were leveled against Cobb-Hunter. Laws covering state ethics provide that no state lawmaker or public official is permitted to use their “official office, membership, or employment to obtain an economic interest for himself, a family member, an individual with whom he is associated, or a business with which he is associated." Governor Nikki Haley (R) vetoed this provision of the state budget, and at Cobb-Hunter's request, the legislature sustained the veto. Cobb-Hunter cited concerns about confusion surrounding the provision. Cobb-Hunter abstained from the vote.