{"id":1639133,"date":"2022-09-12T11:37:16","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T15:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1639133"},"modified":"2022-09-12T11:39:02","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T15:39:02","slug":"report-ny-gov-kathy-hochul-admin-gave-covid-test-contract-to-campaign-donors-company-at-double-the-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-ny-gov-kathy-hochul-admin-gave-covid-test-contract-to-campaign-donors-company-at-double-the-price\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: NY Gov. Kathy Hochul Admin Gave COVID Test Contract To Campaign Donor\u2019s Company At Double The Price"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">36<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Freport-ny-gov-kathy-hochul-admin-gave-covid-test-contract-to-campaign-donors-company-at-double-the-price%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1639133&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Governor Kathy Hochul\u2019s (D-NY) administration paid double the cost for COVID tests in a $637 million deal to a major donor\u2019s company, according to a new report.<\/p>\n<p>Reinvent Albany released the report on Friday that revealed the concerning deal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDigital Gadgets\u2019 tests cost $12.25 each compared to $5 each for the first 5 million tests the state bought from iHealth ($5 each),\u201d the report <a href=\"https:\/\/reinventalbany.org\/2022\/09\/subsidy-sheet-hochul-administration-purchased-637m-of-covid-tests-that-cost-2x-other-nys-vendors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">observed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe second most expensive vendor was Spectrum Medical, whose tests cost $7.80 each. The state ultimately paid out 5 times more to Digital Gadgets than it did to any competitors, as this damning graph shows,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n<p>The founder and CEO of Digital Gadgets, Charlie Tebele, along with his family members, reportedly donated nearly $300,000 to Hochul\u2019s campaign, the Times Union <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesunion.com\/state\/article\/How-a-Hochul-donor-received-637M-million-in-17424950.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>, including $70,000 last winter ahead of Hochul signing the COVID test deal.<\/p>\n<p>The higher price was despite the state purchasing 52 million tests in bulk, paying more than the average retail store cost per test.<\/p>\n<p>In July, Hochul claimed she was unaware that the company\u2019s CEO had supported her campaign.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">MORE: A senior fellow at the Empire Center for Public Policy reviewed records obtained by the Times Union and was struck by the significantly higher price paid to Digital Gadgets, resulting in hundreds of millions in additional spending.<\/p>\n<p>FULL STORY: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ivWdJWh06M\">https:\/\/t.co\/ivWdJWh06M<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HJAgmJwFuc\">pic.twitter.com\/HJAgmJwFuc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Times Union (@timesunion) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/timesunion\/status\/1567878629157228545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 8, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<p>State Republican Party Chair Nick Langworthy said at the time that he planned to file a Freedom of Information Act request regarding the issue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m calling on Governor Hochul and the department of health to turn over all of their communications with the Tebele family and Digital Gadgets,\u201d Langworthy said, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wamc.org\/news\/2022-07-21\/hochul-says-company-awarded-600m-for-covid-tests-was-a-necessary-expenditure\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to<\/a> WAMC. \u201cNew Yorkers need to know who our government spoke to and when they spoke to them, and what was discussed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republican Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay also addressed the concerning report on Friday in a <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1nHD4vdxPxKZZny3jZw66hrrKFC7610nC\/view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">letter<\/a> to the New York State Assembly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Minority members of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee are urging you to call an immediate hearing to conduct a full review of what the state has spent during the disaster emergency,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe governor\u2019s ongoing emergency declarations have allowed her to avoid proper spending oversight. In light of the recent Times Union report, many questions need to be answered. It has never been clearer that we need a full accounting of the state\u2019s COVID-related expenditures and oversight authority must be restored to the appropriate agencies,\u201d he added. Nine other state Republican Ways and Means Committee members joined in his letter.<\/p>\n<p>New York Assemblyman Ed Ra also released a statement expressing his concern regarding the situation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe sheer volume of the purchase multiplied by the inflated price has cost New Yorkers hundreds of millions in unnecessary spending. This is an enormous sum, and any potential impropriety surrounding the deal must be immediately addressed,\u201d Ra, the Republican Conference\u2019s ranking member on the Ways and Means Committee, <a href=\"https:\/\/geneseesun.com\/assembly-republicans-call-for-budget-hearing-to-address-purchase-of-overpriced-covid-tests\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a>. \u201cOur call for a hearing comes in the name of basic fiscal responsibility, which at this time appears to have disappeared from the executive\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Governor Kathy Hochul\u2019s (D-NY) administration paid double the cost for COVID tests in a $637 million deal to a major donor\u2019s company, according to a new report. Reinvent Albany released the report on Friday that revealed the concerning deal. \u201cDigital Gadgets\u2019 tests cost $12.25 each compared to $5 each for the first 5 million tests &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1639136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1639133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1639133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1639136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1639133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1639133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1639133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}