Jackson was caught by 11Alive secretly extending a state contract into the next governor’s term
It’s been more than a week since Rick Jackson was caught by 11Alive slyly extending a state contract into the next governor’s term – and despite facing multiple calls to disclose all of his state contracts so that Georgians can know exactly how deep his hands are in our pockets, he’s flat-out refused to do so.
“It’s been a whole week and Rick Jackson still has not come clean with Georgia voters about how much money he’s making off taxpayers. What on earth is he hiding?” said Democratic Party of Georgia spokesperson Jake Strickland. “Georgians deserve transparency, but Slick Rick has kept us all in the dark. He needs to disclose all of his state contracts today so we can get to the bottom of this and assess his brazen conflicts of interests if he’s ever elected governor.”
Investigative reporting from 11Alive’s Doug Richards revealed that billionaire Rick Jackson just last month extended one of his companies’ multimillion dollar state contracts into 2027 – well past the start of the next governor’s term. This flies in the face of Jackson’s promise that he would “unwind” his state contracts if elected governor. Jackson’s contract extension is just the latest example of Jackson’s rampant self-dealing and pervasive conflicts of interest, with Jackson having made nearly a billion dollars in taxpayer-funded, no-bid contracts.
Since then, Jackson has faced multiple calls to disclose all of his state contracts – but has refused to let Georgians know exactly how much he’s making off taxpayers.
- Keisha Lance Bottoms: “Why hasn’t Rick Jackson disclosed this information? What is he hiding? Georgians deserve transparency and have a right to know how much money Rick Jackson is making off the taxpayers.”
- Senator RaShaun Kemp: “We’re here today to call on Rick Jackson to disclose all of his taxpayer-funded government contracts. […] I want to point out that it took investigative reporting for Slick Rick to be caught secretly extending this multi-million dollar contract. So in no way do we trust him. How much money is he making off Georgians, and what else is he hiding? That’s exactly why Rick Jackson needs to come clean and let Georgia know just how much money he’s making on the backs of our families.”
- Representative Michelle Au: “I don’t think it’s plausible to say that someone could stand in front of a bank of TV cameras and say, ‘I will not do any business with the state,’ having signed in ink on paper his signature to a contract with the state that extends six months into the next governor’s term, right? […] But he certainly could have disclosed it at the time, and he did not. He’s an adult. He’s a businessman. He knows how contracts work, and that I think is a real omission of fact, and it shows his judgment and character.”
- Representative Shea Roberts: “I would like to hone in on something Rick Jackson said at his press conference the other day. Speaking with reporters, he said he doesn’t want even an ‘appearance of impropriety’ when it comes to his extensive state contracts. Well, there’s way more of an appearance. There’s a flashing red warning light. Rick Jackson’s business dealings with the state are a conflict of interest palooza. We only learned about this nearly 18 million dollar contract with the state because of investigative reporting over at 11 Alive. What else is out there? What else is Rick Jackson hiding?”
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