There is no limit on how much a company or individual can donate on behalf of an elected official. Newsom helped secure $226 million last year.
It is the responsibility of the elected official — not the donor — to report behested payments to the FPPC. Newsom’s office said the donations helped the state provide services to those hit hardest by the COVID-19 crisis and that the governor plans to continue “leveraging public-private partnerships to advance public policy, drive innovation, and save taxpayer dollars,” said Kathleen Kelly Janus, a senior advisor on social innovation to Newsom.
In 1997, the California Legislature sought to categorize payments made on behalf of an elected official that were not campaign-related or personal gifts, calling them “behested payments” and enacting reporting requirements “to inform the public of significant transactions involving an elected official, and the influence that may accompany the payments,” according to an FPPC report.
The FPPC is currently evaluating whether additional reporting requirements are needed for behested payments given on behalf of lawmakers and statewide elected officials, Wierenga said.Politicians have been reluctant to ban the practice, arguing that charitable donations serve a valuable purpose. Others say that the level of transparency required now is enough to give the public adequate insight to what would otherwise be private dealings.
For example, Google gave $7 million on April 9, 2020 in a behested donation to Newsom’s office for public health ads. Days later, Verily, the health-focused subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, was awarded an expanded no-bid contract for $13.1 million for coronavirus testing. Verily was ultimately paid more than $68 million for three testing services contracts before the state ended the agreements earlier this year.
Now it makes sense as to why small businesses were forced closed during the lockdown and not the 'corporate giants'.
Woot, another reason to recall if it wasn’t already apparent