Toothless

The Washington State Auditor can find massive wrongdoing happening, but he has no ability to punish the lawbreakers/porkbarrellers/influence peddlers other than a public admonishment.

And he has once again found wrongdoing, by a well-loved leftist establishment, and he is beginning that process.

The State Auditor has concluded that Sound Transit violated the law by donating money to several local, non-profit organizations.

That conclusion comes on the heels of an exclusive KIRO Team 7 Investigation into how transit money sometimes gets handed out to charity.

Sound Transit has basically said regardless of what State Auditor Brian Sonntag thinks, it will keep donating public tax dollars in ways it sees fit.

Sound Transit spends the vast majority of its multi-billion dollar budgets on trains, buses and rail. However, along the way, it has also quietly donated several hundred thousand dollars of public money to charity groups.

That’s not always legal — something KIRO Team 7 Investigators pointed out to the auditor last summer.

A just-released report admonishes the transit authority for paying “sponsorship money” to three nonprofits, totally $8,050 since 2006 . It states that the fundraising event donations were in violation of Article 8, Section 7 of the Constitution of the State of Washington: Credit Not to Be Loaned.

According to state records, even after the auditor’s office told Sound Transit to stop handing out these public expenditures, the agency ignored the warning and kept donating.

Becoming a member here, donating there all adds up. And it is all well and good when it is someone’s personal money. When it is taxpayer money, it should result in a jail sentence.

And when the agency is warned about the violation and puts its middle finger towards the Auditor, the agency should be shut down and their office lights shut off until the money is returned and those in charge are replaced.

Not in Washington though.

At least now we have an idea where Sound Transit got the money and manpower to push their “Transit Only” agenda last November.