Inflated prices cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars each year.
This article also appeared in the Bay Area edition of The New York Times.
About Katharine
Katharine Mieszkowski trains and mentors the next generation of journalists as part of the California Local News Fellowship program at UC Berkeley Journalism. She has been a senior reporter and producer for Reveal, as well as a senior writer for Salon and for Fast Company magazine. Her work has won many national awards, including the Alfred I duPont-Columbia University Award two years in a row and a Peabody award. She lives with her family in the San Francisco Bay Area.