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PRIORITY
ISSUE: State
Procurement Law
Status:
The adopted budget extended the “Procurement Stewardship Act” for
one year – until 6/30/06 (see Part K of S.3666/A. 6840) – but
contained no program reforms.
A handful of reform measures have been
proposed. The most significant include:
• while Governor Pataki
has yet to propose Section 163 amendments, he released a general
reform package that, among other things, would have places significant
limitations on so-called “procurement lobbying.” This
package has yet to be introduced in
the State Legislature.
• State
Comptroller Alan Hevesi has issued a broad proposal to reform the
state’s procurement law. Among other things, this proposal
would: increase discretionary purchasing thresholds for state agencies;
strengthen the incentive to award contracts to small businesses,
MBEs and WBEs, and for purchase of recycled or remanufactured products;
implement new post-award disclosure requirement; and implement
a “centralized
system for agencies to use in determining vendor responsibility.” This
proposal also has yet to be introduced
by the legislature. Check
this site for details.
• A number of other procurement
bills have been introduced, including
A.3 (Silver), dealing with public authority
procurement activity; A.9 (Silver),
which regulates procurement lobbying;
S.3173 (Winner), dealing with procurement
lobbying; S.5106 (Leibell), dealing
also with authority procurement efforts.
Of these
proposals, A.9 has passed the Assembly, none others have been approved
by either house.
Three way negotiations are underway
on the issue of regulation of procurement
lobbying. The Assembly has already
passed a bill expanding the state Lobbying
Act to cover procurement lobbying (A.9-C/Silver);
the Senate has introduced legislation
on the same topic - S.3173/Winner,
which is still in Senate Finance. The
Governor has released several program
bills that have yet to be introduced
- one would regulate procurement lobbying,
another would largely ban the practice.
A third Pataki proposal would generally
ban an "gifts" to
public officials from entities with
formal dealing with the state. The
Business Council has opposed excessively
broad expansion of the Lobbying Act,
or creation of new, ambiguous compliance
provisions within the Lobbying Act.
• A.3 bill
text
• A.9 bill text
• S.3173 bill text
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Contact:
For more information, contact Ken Pokalsky via e-mail at ken.pokalsky@bcnys.org or
phone at 518/465-7511. |
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The purchase of goods and services by state and local governments in New
York represents more than $25 billion in economic activity, and represents
a major marketing opportunity for many Business Council members. Therefore,
the Business Council has a significant interest in the major 2005 legislative
issue related to government procurement - extension of the state procurement
law.
Section 163 of the State Finance Law, which is set to expire on June 30,
2005, sets forth basic provisions for state procurement process. Among other
things, Section 163:
- establishes basic requirements, standards and procedures for state procurement
activities,
- gives authority to the State Procurement Council to develop various
policies related to procurement efforts,
- set criteria for so-called "preferred source" contracts,
- establishes provisions for contract bidding, including the use of "best
value" bids for certain service contracts, and
- sets discretionary buying thresholds for state agencies.
The Business Council believes that it is essential that the legislature
act to extend the procurement statute by the June 30 sunset date. To do otherwise
would cause significant disruption in the state's ability to function, and
the business communities' ability to engage in this significant market segment.
We believe that the current procurement act has served the state - and the
business community - reasonably well, and should be extended largely "as
is."
In addition, the legislature will be considering a number of other changes
to state procurement law, outside of Section 163. These include, but are
not limited to, proposals to create centralized bidder/vender registries,
expand various purchase preference provisions, increases in discretionary
bidding thresholds, incorporation of printing procurement into the general
procurement law, and expanded provision to promote the purchase of recycled
and re-manufactured goods. The Business Council believes that, while some
of these proposals have real merit, their consideration should not be allowed
to delay extension of Section 163.
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