Two nonprofit directors wrote an op-ed in The Olympian arguing Washington's income tax would solve homelessness and help working families. They forgot to mention their organizations belong to a coalition that received $3.65 billion in direct state payments.
Washington has been running a taxpayer-funded housing experiment at scale for a decade. Here's what the data actually shows.
The UCLA California Policy Lab found 78% of unsheltered homeless report mental health conditions and 50% suffer from a combination of physical illness, mental illness, and substance abuse — suggesting addiction and mental illness are a much bigger contributor to living on the street than lack of housing.
By nearly every metric, the Housing First model has been a colossal failure and a mismanagement of taxpayer dollars. But the organizations asking for more money designed this approach. It failed by their own metrics. They have no financial incentive to see it succeed.
Both authors run organizations with direct financial interests in passing the income tax.
WLIHA lobbies the Legislature to increase the budget of the taxpayer-funded Housing Trust Fund. WLIHA helped secure $527M in the 2024 Capital Budget for the HTF.
State Commerce Dept administers the HTF and distributes grants. WLIHA's own members — Bellwether, Plymouth, DESC, Mercy Housing, YouthCare, HDC — are primary recipients of those grants.
Members pay dues to WLIHA → funds Myers's ~$136K salary.
BOTC's own footer: "PAID FOR BY BALANCE OUR TAX CODE" — a political expenditure campaign, not a charity.
From Scalzo's BOTC bio: she's ready to "play the world's tiniest violin for all Washington's billionaires."
She is the paid director of the income tax campaign and a lobbyist for BOTC.
Follow the money in a circle.
Push to increase the Housing Trust Fund budget
2024 Capital Budget for the Housing Trust Fund — secured with WLIHA lobbying
HTF funds flow to housing nonprofits across the state
Bellwether, Plymouth, DESC, Mercy Housing, YouthCare, HDC — the primary recipients
Funds Myers's ~$136K salary and WLIHA's lobbying operations
More tax revenue → bigger Housing Trust Fund → more grants → more dues → more lobbying
Among WLIHA's dues-paying members are government agencies: the City of Olympia, the City of Seattle's Office of Housing, the City of Everett, King County Housing Authority, and the Housing Authority of Okanogan County.
These are not private advocates. They are public agencies funded by taxpayer dollars — paying membership dues to a nonprofit lobbying organization whose explicit 2026 priority is passing new state taxes. Washington taxpayers are funding the campaign to raise their own taxes — with a nonprofit in the middle so nobody has to call it what it is.
WA law requires lobbying employers to file annual expense reports. BOTC stopped filing exactly when their income tax advocacy went into high gear.
Source: WA Public Disclosure Commission (PDC)
BOTC represents 80+ organizations. According to the Washington State Open Checkbook (fiscal.wa.gov), identified member organizations received these direct state payments over the last 3.5 years.
Source: fiscal.wa.gov — WA State Open Checkbook
A Medicaid managed care organization with $1.64B annual revenue — almost entirely Apple Health state/federal payments. CEO Leanne Berge: $1,021,846 compensation.
A BOTC member funded by taxpayer dollars, using taxpayer dollars to advocate for income tax revenue that will expand programs generating more revenue for themselves.
This coalition represents wealthy public unions and politically connected NGOs already taking enormous sums of money from taxpayers — and using it to push an unconstitutional income tax.
All three funded by taxpayer dollars — spent against taxpayer-backed initiatives
A coalition that received $3.65 billion in taxpayer money is lobbying for an income tax that would expand the very programs paying their salaries. Housing First failed by their own metrics. The money keeps flowing anyway. And they want more.
A very expensive, not-so-small violin.
Take Action at LetsGoWashington.com →Based on research by Brian Heywood. All financial figures sourced from fiscal.wa.gov (WA State Open Checkbook), pdc.wa.gov (Public Disclosure Commission), King County reports, and public records. Original article: @bkheywood on X.
