New York\u2019s COVID-era corruption fallout is still raining down, years after the last mask mandate expired.<\/p>\n
Former Deputy State Budget Director Sandra Beattie just got dinged a measly $5,000 fine by the pathetic state Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government for helping a buddy get a bite out of a fat $11 million<\/a> contract to run then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo\u2019s \u201cExcelsior Pass\u201d app, which did . . . something he insisted was urgently necessary.<\/p>\n Beattie vacationed regularly at the Florida home of connected lobbyist Michael Balboni while his clients had business pending with her office; the fine is for failing to clear these trips with ethics officers or even report them.<\/p>\n Shortly after her sunny jaunts, Beattie wedged Balboni\u2019s firm into the Excelsior project as a consultant and lobbyist for Deloitte, its prime contractor.<\/p>\n Over two years, Balboni pulled down $300,000 in fees, all Beattie-approved.<\/p>\n He has since leveraged his connections into the presidency of Adelphi University, a gig that pays in the range of a million bucks a year.<\/p>\n \t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n Balboni is \u201cthe leader best positioned to secure public-private partnerships,\u201d announced Adelphi in May \u2014 a fine euphemism for his proven talent in leeching of taxpayer dollars into private hands. <\/p>\n Of course, if it weren\u2019t for self-dealing, New York state would make no deals at all.<\/p>\n Recall how Gov. Kathy Hochul, then just three months in office, in November 2021 declared a \u201cstate of emergency\u201d in the name of expediting pandemic counter-measures \u2014 and proceeded to award a no-bid $637 million contract for 52 million COVID tests to Digital Gadgets, the company of Charlie Tebele, who just days before had (with relatives) shoveled $300,000<\/a> into her campaign coffers.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Digital Gadgets didn\u2019t even make the tests; it just played middleman to turn a 100% profit while the state paid far more than it needed to.<\/p>\n As an added bonus for the family\u2019s good works, Hochul\u2019s campaign even hired<\/a> Tebele\u2019s son.<\/p>\n And this of course followed King Cuomo\u2019s exploitation of his media-awarded status as America\u2019s COVID savior to score a $5 million book contract<\/a> tooting his own \u201cleadership\u201d horn.<\/p>\n Never mind his care-home mandates, which needlessly endangered seniors and developmentally-challenged adults by forcing still-infected people into care facilities \u2014 purely to satisfy the gov\u2019s hospital-lobbyist donors.<\/p>\n Also, please pay no attention to the state employees who actually wrote<\/a> the book, or the bogus ethics waiver<\/a> Cuomo got to stamp the deal as kosher.<\/p>\n Nothing unusual in New York state, where pay-to-play is as venerable and honored a tradition as fudging per diem expenses or routine 20% raises for elected officials.<\/p>\n The COVID corruption really only stands out because it came from \u201cleaders\u201d who were posturing as the public\u2019s saviors even as they dipped their hands in the till. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s COVID-era corruption fallout is still raining down, years after the last mask mandate expired. 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