State Controller Candidate Herb Morgan Demands Audit, Full Disclosure of $6 Million Nonprofit ‘CART’ Earmark

Herb Morgan, candidate for California State Controller, called Tuesday for an audit and full public disclosure of a $6 million state budget appropriation for the Center Against Racism and Trauma, or CART, a Moreno Valley nonprofit founded by Assemblyman Corey Jackson (D-Moreno Valley).

The $6 million appropriation follows an earlier $250,000 state payment to CART that Morgan’s campaign identified in California’s financial records.

“California taxpayers should not have to guess who requested $6 million, what the money is supposed to accomplish or how the state will determine whether it was spent properly,” Morgan said. “That is not transparency. That is a blank check.”

CART was founded in 2020 by Jackson before his election to the Legislature.

On May 20, Jackson named CART the 60th Assembly District’s 2026 Nonprofit of the Year. Roughly three weeks later, a Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee document included an item appropriating $6 million for CART through the Department of Social Services.

Jackson chairs Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Human Services, whose jurisdiction includes the Department of Social Services.

The public budget documents reviewed by the Morgan campaign do not identify the lawmaker who requested the $6 million appropriation.

“That should be an easy question to answer,” Morgan said. “Who asked for the money? California’s budget process should tell us. It doesn’t.”

The $6 million appropriation comes after an earlier $250,000 appropriation to CART.

Morgan’s campaign identified an April 2, 2024, General Fund payment of $250,000 to the organization through the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research.

The underlying budget language listed only the organization and the amount: “$250,000, for the Center Against Racism & Trauma (CART).”

The section also allowed self-attestation by the recipient as an acceptable method of verifying the use of funds.

“The state wrote a check for $250,000 without telling taxpayers what the money was supposed to buy, then allowed the organization receiving the money to attest to its own use of the funds,” Morgan said. “Now the same organization is in the budget for $6 million. California needs receipts.”

CART’s federal tax filing for the year ending June 2024 reported $258,501 in total revenue and $57,667 in expenses. The state’s $250,000 payment represented approximately 97% of the organization’s reported revenue for that year.

The filing reported $234,345 in assets, no liabilities, zero program service revenue and $45,000 in compensation to its chief executive.

Morgan said the Controller’s Office should examine both the CART funding and the broader process California uses to distribute legislative earmarks.

Morgan is calling for public release of:

• The name of the lawmaker or office that requested the $6 million.
• The stated purpose of the appropriation.
• Any application, grant agreement, contract or supporting documentation.
• Required deliverables and performance measures.
• The schedule and conditions for payment.
• Documentation showing how the state will verify the use of the funds.
• Records showing the results of the earlier $250,000 appropriation.

“This is exactly why California needs radical transparency,” Morgan said. “A taxpayer should be able to click on a payment and immediately see who requested it, why it was authorized, who received it and what taxpayers got in return.”

Morgan said the current system makes even basic financial research unnecessarily difficult. The organization appears under different names across state budget records, federal tax records and FI$Cal, making it difficult for taxpayers and journalists to connect the records.

“California calls this information public, but public information that ordinary people cannot find or connect is not real transparency,” Morgan said. “The books should be built to expose problems, not bury them.”

As controller, Morgan said he would make state spending searchable and traceable from appropriation to payment, audit the legislative earmark process and publicly flag payments that cannot be independently verified.

“The Controller does not write the state budget,” Morgan said. “The Controller’s job is to follow the money. That means demanding documentation, auditing high-risk spending and showing Californians where their money went.”

“Six million dollars. Show us the request. Show us the purpose. Show us the receipts,” Morgan said.