The Charleston Gazette's Phil
Kabler gets deep into what's really going on under the Gold Dome.
Found in most Sunday editions of the Gazette, here's one that is
well worth the read. AW
Statehouse
Beat: Vaccine lottery under the microscope again
By Phil Kabler philk@hdmediallc.com Jun 24,
2023
Glad to see CBS News finally pick up on Gov. Jim
Justice’s outrageously grotesque giveaway of millions of taxpayer
dollars otherwise known as the “Do It For Babydog” sweepstakes.
The CBS report interviewed Babydog truck winner Grace
Fowler, who according to the segment, had to sell her truck
because she could not afford the taxes owed on the vehicle, the
sales price of which had to be reported as income.
If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Fowler was
featured prominently in the April 10, 2022, edition of Statehouse
Beat, having received a 1099-MISC tax form from the Governor’s
Office placing the value of the Chevy Silverado 1500 she won at
$85,162.
That, she found, was a steep price for a mid-level
Silverado that lacked leather seats, a sky roof or even a
bedliner, with similar models retailing in the $47,000 to $52,000
range.
Even though the dealership dressed it up with a lift
kit, oversized tires and steps, it was hardly the top-of-the-line
luxury pickup that Justice claimed would be awarded as prizes in
the vaccination sweepstakes.
The only thing about the truck that was
top-of-the-line was the price, and as I reported at the time, that
was because the Governor’s Office staff were gadding about the
state trying to buy 14 luxury pickups at the height of the new
vehicle shortage, when pandemic-related production issues left
many dealerships with nearly empty lots and little to no
inventory.
In other words, it was a seller’s market in extremis.
Unfortunately for Fowler and the other winners, they
were obligated to report the sky-high prices the Governor’s Office
had paid for the trucks — not the fair market value — as income.
The CBS report had one nugget of new information,
reporting that federal investigators are looking into the
sweepstakes expenses, issuing subpoenas focusing on whether the
governor overpaid (or was overcharged) for the sweepstakes trucks.
Justice at his weekly virtual briefing Tuesday
devoted a good deal of time to disputing the CBS report, even
having chief of staff Brian Abraham tell state media that the feds
had subpoenaed sales documents for one truck purchase, and that he
believes the U.S. Attorney’s Office has closed the case.
While there’s no evidence that the Justice
administration conspired with car dealers to jack-up truck prices,
or that there were kickbacks or any other quid pro quo, the whole
affair reeks of wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars and poor
judgment.
Looking back, the Do It For Babydog vaccine lottery
was more of a fiasco than first thought.
When launched in May 2021, Justice said the program
would use $10 million of the state’s $1.25 billion in federal
CARES Act funds to incentivize residents to get COVID-19
vaccinations.
Actual total cost of the sweepstakes, according to
the state Auditor’s Office, was a whopping $23.46 million.
At the time, Justice said $1 million would go for
$100 gift cards to be awarded through random drawings.
While total spending on gift cards is not spelled out
in the auditor’s report, cash sweepstakes prizes totaled $5.68
million. Recall that Justice gave out five $1 million sweepstakes
prizes, so we can presume the cash cards totaled in the $680,000
range, suggesting about 6,800 prizes were awarded.
However, according to the auditor’s report, the
Governor’s Office paid $1,030,029 to purchase an undisclosed
number of unloaded electronic gift cards, and then paid a vendor
(not disclosed in the report) $3,192,000 to load the cash value
onto the cards.
If my math is correct, the governor’s office paid the
vendor nearly $470 for each card loaded with a $100 cash value. If
that’s correct, maybe that’s where the feds should be looking.
(Recall that the Governor’s Office bypassed normal Purchasing
Division requirements for sweepstakes purchases, and none of it
was competitively bid.)
As the Gazette-Mail reported at the time, and again
on Wednesday, the program — like many vaccination incentive
lotteries launched by states during the pandemic — was an abject
failure.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, during the sweepstakes, an average of 931 vaccine
doses a day were administered in West Virginia. Prior to the
launch, the state had been averaging 4,584 doses a day.
(Perhaps a fatal flaw of the sweepstakes was that any resident
with proof of vaccination could enter, rather than limiting
participation to persons who got vaccinated during the lottery.)
However, the sweepstakes did accomplish one thing.
In the fall of 2019, Justice’s approval rating was
underwater at 42%, sixth-lowest among U.S. governors.
He was equally distrusted by Republicans, having run
as a Democrat in 2016, and by Democrats, whom he had betrayed by
flopping back to the Republican Party in 2017.