SEATTLE -- 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.

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Michael Ennis is transportation director of the Washington Policy Center, a watchdog group over transit spending.

“I think what this really points out is a fundamental flaw in the system. There are really no accountability measures with public agencies. If I'm finding a government agency misspending, misallocating those dollars, I'm going to be concerned. It doesn't matter whether the agency thinks it's not a lot of money, it's the principle involved.”

The audit also told Sound Transit it could keep buying controversial "memberships" in certain non-profits, like the Transportation Choices Coalition. TCC is a registered lobbyist with a mission to "increase public transit funding."

Sound Transit donated at least $156,000 there over 10 years. This arrangement remains legal as long as public tax money is used purely for education.

Many bus and rail riders, like Kelly Dugan and Gian Grosso, think tax-dollar charity rules are still a little too gray.

Dugan says, “If that's the way they are handling it, then I disagree with that. I think we should have accountability for all our tax dollars to know where it's going, particularly charities.”

Grosso adds, “If there is tax dollars going to charity, I would be interested in checking that out and questioning why Sound Transit would do that.”

KIRO Team 7 Investigators called Sound Transit to respond on-camera to the audit findings, but a spokesperson declined.