John Braun commentary: Charges of corruption hit Democrat plan to hand out taxpayer dollars
Friday, October 31, 2025
Taxpayers would rightfully be outraged if a state agency handed someone almost $350,000 in public funds to put toward the purchase of a $425,000 home, simply because of that person’s race and a family connection.
If that doesn’t sound corrupt and unfair, I don’t know what does.
According to some good old-fashioned investigative reporting by Seattle-based independent journalist Brandi Kruse, something very similar to this happened about six months ago.
Most of the public funds involved came from what’s called the Community Reinvestment Plan. This was created by Democratic state legislators in 2022 as a response to — of all things — the so-called “war on drugs” policies from the 20th century, and their effect on people of color.
While the money wasn’t handed out directly by the state Department of Commerce, which was put in charge of the CRP, it was funneled through multiple non-profit organizations, as Democrats intended.
Kruse’s report noted that the person who received all that money, which went toward the purchase of a Tacoma home in March, just happens to be the daughter of the “financial empowerment” director at one of those nonprofits.
It also details how two more women with close connections to the same Seattle non-profit apparently received almost $50,000 and $100,000, respectively, in taxpayer money through the CRP.
The smaller amount reportedly went to pay off consumer debt, which would be like credit-card charges. The larger amount went toward buying a home — and according to the whistleblower, the purchaser also received more than $145,000 through the Democrat-created Covenant Homeownership Fund, which like the CRP hands out money based on race.
Kruse’s online report, headlined “Whistleblower: State ‘equity’ program became a fund for personal enrichment,” is well worth reading. Also, there’s no reason to question the credibility of the whistleblower, a woman of color and real-estate broker who began keeping records after she saw insiders misuse taxpayer dollars by gaming the system.
We can add this scandal to the legacy of Jay Inslee. The CRP was another one of his efforts to pander to special interests by giving away tax dollars and not looking too closely at how they would be spent.
In the budget he proposed ahead of the 2022 session, the former governor called for diverting tens of millions in marijuana-tax dollars to a new account in the state treasury. The CRP, he said, would distribute that money through grants to communities that have “experienced historically and inequitably enforced criminal laws and penalties for illegal drug sales, possession and use.”
Democrats’ legislation to create the CRP died in the Senate, despite receiving party-line approval in the House. However, they still made it happen by inserting the policy language into their 2022 supplemental budget and tying it to a $200 million general-fund appropriation.
More than two-thirds of the $200 million was to go toward economic development. That includes assistance to small businesses but also what the law calls “addressing wealth disparities to promote asset building such as home ownership.” This is what apparently opened the door to the corruption documented by the whistleblower.
Another $50 million was to be divided between “community-based violence intervention and prevention services,” which aren’t defined in the law; legal assistance to provide “post-conviction relief” that could include making criminal records and convictions disappear; and reentry services for felons released from custody.
This year, despite a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall, Democrats poured another $50 million into the CRP account. Governor Ferguson let that go through, yet he vetoed a $200,000 appropriation for a pediatric facility to care for infants and toddlers born to drug-addicted mothers — and blamed it on the state’s fiscal challenges.
To be fair, the law that created the Community Reinvestment Plan made it clear there were to be accountability measures in place to ensure the money is distributed and used as intended. However, it’s obvious three years later that the required oversight never happened.
The journalist who broke the story about the CRP speculated that looking deeper into the economic-development grants and other program areas would keep every news reporter in the state busy for the rest of the year.
I would add the Covenant Homeownership Program to the list of things needing more scrutiny. Like the CRP, this program’s official purpose is to help people of color build wealth through homeownership — but only if they “have been impacted by state-sanctioned racial discrimination in housing,” which leaves out certain racial groups.
Even though the program is only two years old, Democrats have already loosened its eligibility requirements so financial assistance is available to people with higher incomes. They also made it so some loans may be forgiven after five years. You can guess where that’s headed.
In the meantime, Senate Republicans will propose reforms to the Community Reinvestment Plan based on the lessons that all legislators should take from this disturbing investigative report.
One, eliminate discriminatory housing programs that pick winners and losers based on race.
Two, impose strict oversight and spending controls on non-profits that receive and handle state taxpayer dollars.
And three, enforce performance standards so assistance reaches real families instead of insiders.
As of this year the head of the Department of Commerce is a former Democratic state senator who supported the CRP legislation and the initial $200 million appropriation.
If he’s serious about increased oversight, as his public comments about the CRP situation indicate, then we have common ground, and I would welcome him to join our effort.
When public money is hijacked by self-serving operators, every Washingtonian pays the price. It’s even more disappointing that the alleged corruption apparently denied housing assistance to qualified applicants at a time when housing affordability is such a priority.
We cannot afford public policies that fail to protect against such misuse of taxpayer dollars. Legislators must do better.
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Sen. John Braun of Centralia serves the 20th Legislative District, which spans parts of four counties from Yelm to Vancouver. He became Senate Republican leader in 2020.