Senate Bill S7933

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S7933

SPONSOR: GAUGHRAN
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend chapter 308 of the laws of 2012, amending the general
municipal law relating to providing local governments greater contract
flexibility and cost savings by permitting certain shared purchasing
among political subdivisions, in relation to the effectiveness thereof

 
PURPOSE:

Extends the expiration of certain provisions of general municipal law,
relating to granting localities greater contract flexibility to author-
ize shared purchasing.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1. Section 2 of chapter 308 of the laws of 2012 amends the
general municipal law relating to providing local governments greater
contract flexibility and cost savings by permitting certain shared
              

purchasing among political subdivisions.

Section 2. Extends the date to July 31, 2023.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

This bill would extend the authority, until July 31, 2023, of New York
State municipalities, school districts, and other local governmental
entities to purchase from federal and other states' contracts for goods
or services that were competitively bid, as provided in General Munici-
pal Law §103(16).

Cooperative purchasing, also commonly referred to as "piggy-backing," is
a procurement method whereby if a government agency has already awarded
a contract to one or more vendors for a good or service through a
competitive process consistent with the procurement standards in New
York State statute, the contract can be utilized by other government
agencies on the same terms and conditions.  Piggy-backing has been prov-
en to reduce the administrative costs and burdens by localities and the
costs related to goods and services; resulting in savings to the govern-
mental entities which utilize cooperative purchasing. Accordingly, since
cooperative purchasing was authorized in 2013, thousands of political
subdivisions throughout New York State have used piggyback contracts for
thousands of purchases and have used the resulting savings to reduce the
cost-pressures on their budgets and taxpayers.

If this bill is not approved, the authority to realize these savings and
efficiencies will expire on July 31, 2021. Extending this statute a year
before its sunset date will allow local governments to continue to use
cooperative purchasing and avoid the need to contingently prepare a
request for proposal for goods or services in the event the statute is
not extended beyond its expiration date.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

This is a new bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the State.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.