Even in TV game shows, a million dollars is a big deal. In a season of “Survivor,” only one of 16 contestants can claim that prize, and only after they prove themselves by enduring weeks of a starvation-level diet, grueling physical competitions and cutthroat Machiavellian scheming among their fellow players.

In the 14-year run of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” only 11 contestants have ever managed to win the top prize. Hundreds have had their million-dollar aspirations dashed, comforted only by the parting words of Regis Philbin or Cedric the Entertainer.

On the game show that is the Paul LePage administration, however, apparently all it takes to win a million is to be an ideological friend to the governor. Mainers learned this week that almost a million dollars is being paid to right-wing consultant Gary Alexander, through a no-bid contract, to write a report about Maine’s health care and public assistance programs.

This arrangement should set off more warning klaxons and flashing lights than there are on the entire set of “Millionaire.” The problems here are obvious and legion.

First, there’s Alexander himself. In addition to his strange insistence, while Welfare Secretary for Pennsylvania, that his female employees under the age of 45 wear pantyhose or tights, he also charged the state for his daily commute from Rhode Island and started his own real estate company on the side while still working for the government.

Even more troubling and more relevant to his current contract is the fact that, while secretary, Alexander implemented cuts and put up bureaucratic roadblocks that cost 89,000 Pennsylvania children their health care coverage. The auditor general of the state also announced last week that Alexander had cost the state at least $7 million through the mismanagement of a home care services program.

It’s also disturbing that LePage would pay so much for a report when he already knows what it will say. Why else would he task Alexander with examining the financial effects of health care expansion when we already have numbers from the impartial Office of Fiscal and Program Review and from outside studies like the one conducted by the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, which have all found that Maine would see significant savings.

Kaiser estimates the state would save $570 million over the next 10 years while covering almost 70,000 more Mainers through the acceptance of federal funds.

It’s obvious that LePage, driven by an ideological obsession, has decided that he doesn’t like the numbers and wants someone to make up some new ones, hence the exorbitant no-bid contract to a conservative ally.

I can tell you right now that Alexander’s report will recommend not expanding MaineCare and suggest making further cuts to public assistance programs for struggling Mainers. Where’s my million dollars?

Perhaps most galling about this whole arrangement is that this money, now going to pay for a few weeks of work from a biased consultant, could have been used to fund vital programs that LePage has already slated for elimination.

In the last bipartisan budget, the Legislature asked LePage to come up with $33 million in efficiencies by cutting some of the waste with which he claims government is riddled. Instead, LePage came back with deep cuts to important programs, including eliminating Head Start, an education program for low-income children.

How much does Head Start cost? $500,000. That’s half of what Alexander is being paid.

Also on the chopping block is $1 million for the Maine Immunization Program, which vaccinates Maine children against communicable diseases. I don’t understand how anyone can make a direct comparison and say that paying Alexander is a more important use of a million dollars than children’s health.

LePage’s recent proposal also included smaller cuts, including the elimination of funding for Maine’s Welcome Center, meant to help integrate skilled foreign-trained workers into Maine’s economy. With just $70,000, we could pay to save more than 14 Welcome Centers with the money going to Alexander for his report.

If Gov. LePage were actually serious about running government like a business, he’d be fired for wasting so much company money when it could be spent on much more serious needs.

If LePage’s administration were really a game show, no one would watch. The game is too obviously being rigged in his favor.

Mike Tipping is a political junkie who blogs at MainePolitics.net and works for the Maine People’s Resource Center. He can be contacted at:

writebacktomike@gmail.com

Twitter: @miketipping