| All-County Taypayers Association | "The
price of freedom is eternal vigilance... |
THE PEOPLE HAVE PROHIBITED IT New York State owns and operates 266 state prisons and hospitals which purchase food and sundry items for which the State pays about $100 million every year. These numbers do not include municipally owned and operated facilities. The taxpayers are paying about 30% more for these products than NY City and other nearby states. In 1995, in violation of the federal and state anti-trust laws, the State’s purchasing and competitive bidding laws and the NY Constitution’s prohibition against gifting such contracts to private corporations, New York State officials contracted with the SYSCO Corporation, the nation’s largest (sales of $12 billion per year) food and sundries distribution company to supply all 910 items consumed at all 266 facilities for four years. This business was taken away from the dozens of smaller, local, family-owned, independent food service distributors. They have not been given the opportunity to continue doing what they had been doing for decades --freely competing for the State business on the basis of a low bid. On January 29, 1998, the matter was brought to the Judiciary. * Click Here * to see copies of papers filed with the U.S. District Court. |