'Hot dog seasoning emergencies' and other stupid Illinois political tricks

Blog: 'Hot dog seasoning emergencies' and other stupid Illinois political tricks:
"The Illinois Department of Corrections declared a "hot dog seasoning emergency" when the department ran out of seasoning at the Menard Correctional Center meat shop. 
They resorted to an emergency $15,000, no-bid contract to restock their supply to end the crisis.
This isn't an isolated incident.
For the fiscal year that ended June 30, Gov. Pat Quinn's administration approved more than $135 million in no-bid, emergency purchases.
The practice has continued into the current fiscal year, with Illinois Medicaid officials awarding no-bid ObamaCare contracts that could be valued as high as $190 million.
These aren't real emergencies.
This is mismanagement and failure to plan ahead.
Mismanagement shouldn't be used as an excuse for government to give out emergency, no-bid contracts that skirt the regular competitive bidding rules.
The problem with competitive bids, of course, is that the wrong people might bid too low, and favored vendors, those rich sources of patronage jobs, campaign donations, and what the Chicago vernacular calls "clout," might have to make do with the diminished profit opportunities offered by the free markets for their goods and services."
.........Now that Illinois has given us Barack Obama as president, crony capitalism is alive well beyond the dreams of Gilded Age robber barons.