More Government Spending Waste and This is a Doozy

The Las Vegas Sun is reporting: The state Transportation Board awarded a $246 million contract to Las Vegas Paving for the first phase of an Interstate 15 widening project but also, in a first, gave $300,000 to each of the three losing bidders.
Our governor, Jim Gibbons makes a good point: Gibbons said the profit may be small for the winning bidder and the company may make less than those who didn’t win the contract. “Ought there be a stipend for the winning bidder?” he asked.
Ok, let me get this straight- a company makes a bid and loses. For their efforts, they get $300,000. Why? When has this happened before? When a bid is put out, there winners and there losers, it is the nature of business. Sometimes a company will invest a lot of money in making a bid and sometimes they lose. So, now the government is in the business of compensating the losers?
I hope the governor and legislators come to their senses and overturn this very stupid idea.
This is like the minimum F I blogged about the other day.