Yonkers Insider/Westchester Insider: Election Desk 2022 News: Press Release from Gary Lipson for NYS Assembly.

 

For Immediate Release

ASSEMBLYMEMBER CHRIS BURDICK REMAINS SILENT ON HOCHUL’S PAY-TO-PLAY CORRUPTION SCHEME THAT COST TAXPAYERS MILLIONS.   Refuses to Speak Out Against $637 Million No-Bid Contract to Top Hochul Donor & While NY Taxpayers Paid Twice the Price For COVID Tests. Location, NY--October 19, 2022 Assembly Candidate Gary Lipson calls out Assemblymember Chris Burdick for staying silent on Governor Hochul’s massive pay-to-play corruption scam that gave her top donor a $637 million no-bid contract. A series of news reports have detailed instances of Hochul’s pay-to-play schemes. One of the corrupt schemes played out after Hochul reauthorized her emergency powers to circumvent the usual procurement process and awarded a $637 million no-bid contract to a company whose owners and family members donated $300,000 to the governor and held a fundraiser for her campaign. A recent quote from Hochul implicates the Assembly, “Everything we do has been approved by the Legislature.” The Hochul Administration awarded the non-bid contract to Digital Gadgets, a company known for selling hoverboards through QVC. Digital Gadgets sold the COVID tests to NewYork for twice the amount of what the state of California paid. New York paid $12.25 each for COVID  test kits, while others sold for as low as $5. In addition, Governor Hochul’s campaign gave a job to the son of Digital Gadgets’ CEO. While the reports on Hochul’s blatant scheme have been public for weeks, Assemblymember Chris Burdick remains silent as the governor repeatedly renewed her emergency powers and on kickback schemes that have put Hochul under pressure even from even other Democrats. “Time and again, Chris Burdick and the Assembly choose to protect their Party power over what’s best for the taxpayers,” said Lipson. “This is one of the most blatant, crooked kickback schemes in our state’s history, and Burdick has absolutely nothing to say. It’s remarkable, but his silence and the silence of the Albany Democrats speaks volumes about everything wrong with the one-party rule in Albany right now.” Lipson concluded, “For two years, Burdick and the Assembly surrendered their constitutional duty to be an equal branch of government and handed over unchecked power to the corrupt Cuomo-Hochul regime. When even other Democrats called this corruption alarming, Burdick is nowhere to be found. He is complicit, and we will never clean up our state unless we clean house of the people who  perpetuate  this  corruption  with  their silence.”