Media Coverage: Newly formed political org in Bayonne calls on council to adopt pay-to-play laws

Check out the Jersey Journal Coverage of the Bayonne Center for Progress here.

What is pay-to-play legislation?

Every state and city, directly or indirectly, prohibits bribery in
obtaining government contracts. But few towns or cities restrict
campaign contributions from businesses seeking government contracts.
Pay-to-play addresses just that: developers or vendors who give political
contributions to elected officials to garner special
consideration or influence in acquiring a government contract and other perks.

Why is this bad for taxpayers?

There are many reasons why a lack of pay-to-play laws is detrimental
to healthy government and hurts taxpayers. Here are the two main

1) Pay-to-play subverts the open and fair bidding process by
steering government contracts to more connected, and sometimes more expensive, vendors
and businesses, passing that financial burden to taxpayers.

2) Lack of pay-to-play laws hurts local small businesses, as they
cannot afford to pay, even if they can perform the job. Pay-to-play
contracts often go to out of town firms. We are currently conducting
research to see what percentage of Bayonne vendors receive contracts vs
out-of-town vendors.


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