Two bills filed in the Washington State Legislature take aim at Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s use of recent lawsuit settlement money to send out checks to hundreds of thousands of state residents.
Last month, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) sent out $40 million worth of checks in the amounts of $50 and $120 to state residents considered “low-income” derived from a lawsuit settlement against chicken and tune companies that had engaged in price-fixing. However, many of the checks ended up mailed to residents who are not low-income, wrongly addressed, or to people who are deceased.
Yet, the biggest complaint among critics of the checks, which were signed by Ferguson and included a personal message touting his office’s successes, is that it was an inappropriate use of public money at a time when he is actively campaigning to be Washington’s next governor.
While the State Auditor’s Office concluded that the checks did not constitute unethical conduct, legislators like Sen. Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro Woolley, want to prevent the issue from arising in the future. He is the sponsor of Senate Bill 6176, which would bar elected officials from including their name on any settlement checks or letters sent to state residents.
“It may not be a violation of the law per se, but it raises ethical questions that have left many recipients of the checks confused, and a great deal of voters rightfully alarmed,” Wagoner said in a news release.
A separate piece of legislation, Senate Bill 6078, filed by Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, would prohibit the AGO from using settlement money “except pursuant to an appropriation by law.” Mullet is also running for governor.
Posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, Mullet wrote, “Of course the AG should go after price gougers. The issue is the distribution of the settlement money needs oversight. No state agency should just be able to send money to whoever they feel like.”
