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By Jon Coupal and Scott Wilk
During the past two years, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has paid billions of dollars in secretive no-bid contracts with little to no transparency. Now Newsom is deploying his same secretive approach to a growing number of other public contracts. All Californians, irrespective of party affiliation, should be deeply concerned.
Especially troubling is the Newsom administration’s perverse penchant for no-bid contracts, many of which renew automatically. Since 2020, his administration entered into more than 8,000 no-bid contracts, many of which were valued at more than $25 million. By the end of 2020, the total amount was nearly $12 billion.
The latest example? Instead of simply suspending the state’s gas tax, Newsom wants to award a no-bid government contract to a yet-to-be-named third-party vendor to manage a process of providing rebates to Californians, a lot of busywork to distract drivers from the fact that he’s making them pay the state’s highest-in-the-nation gas taxes.
After the horrible mess the EDD made by distributing payment cards in 2020, one has to wonder, what could go wrong?
To read the entire column, please click here.
Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Scott Wilk is the current Senate Republican Leader and represents California 21st Senate District which includes the Antelope, Santa Clarita and Victor valleys. You can learn more about Scott by visiting his website.
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