Nixon’s bidding system was signed into law the beginning of this month, and accountability had its swan song when the Liberty School District Foundation, a non-profit, lost its bid just two days ago. Nixon promised that the system would be designed to help accommodate charitable groups, but it continues to reward political donors. The bill's passage also followed a losing bid from the City of Sugar Creek, whose intention to use fee office proceeds to help the poor was ignored.
Meanwhile, the picture behind the scenes is growing even gloomier:
We've posted on uber-Democrat James Ryan Williams' involvement with James Montee, but it looks like the Democrat cabal has expanded. Word is that Bill Skaggs and Phil Snowden are also involved, and their attempts to snap up the fee offices are even leading to complaints from other Democrats. Altogether, they are bidding for more than 9 million dollars in business over the next four years.
The evidence that something is awry just keeps piling up. Of the contracts presently awarded, Nixon donors have won all five fee offices with revenue exceeding $500,000 (DOR ‘08 Estimates). Their success rate for offices with revenue over $200,000 is 62%.
Another way to look at it is that Nixon contributors win fee offices twice as large as the ones everyone else gets.
Fee Office Revenue:
Nixon contributors: $376,076
Everyone else: $169,408
No matter how you cut it, the 'reformed' bidding process is producing the same results as the old system – with the unsavory side effect of diverting money from non-profits and charities and towards the state coffers.
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