[NYPOST] Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, paid 45% less for the same COVID-19 tests that New York state bought from a company tied to $300,000 in campaign donations to Gov. Kathy Hochul — and watchdogs are calling for answers.The revelation Friday of New York taxpayers getting soaked on the test purchases is just the latest instance of alleged pay-to-play schemes involving the Democratic incumbent ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
"New Yorkers are supposed to believe it’s pure coincidence Gov. Hochul bought COVID tests for $12.25 apiece from a major donor, when other companies offered tests at half that price?" Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay (R-Oswego) said in a statement.
"This is negligence, incompetence or blatant corruption — maybe all three. Either way, it demands answers," he added.
The upstate Republican is not the only one calling for state and federal officials to probe how the New Jersey-based Digital Gadgets was able to charge the state nearly twice as much for rapid tests as the Omicron variant swept across the state last year.
Cutting out the Hochul-friendly middleman might have saved the Empire State as much as $286 million out of the $637 million in total payments to the company for 52 million tests, according to the Times Union, which first reported the Golden State discount Friday.