A 7117: Authorizes political subdivisions to award public contracts to participants of a minority and women owned business enterprise program at a cost premium not to exceed ten percent of the lowest bid.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 7117 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY March 20, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. BICHOTTE HERMELYN, EPSTEIN -- read once and referred to the Committee on Local Governments AN ACT to amend the general municipal law, in relation to authorizing political subdivisions to award public contracts to participants of a minority and women owned business enterprise program at a cost premium not to exceed ten percent of the lowest bid as an available remedy to a demonstrated disparity The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 104-a of the general municipal law, as amended by 2 chapter 468 of the laws of 1994, is amended to read as follows: 3 § 104-a. Purchasing [of products] for public use. 1. Notwithstanding 4 the provisions of section one hundred three of this [chapter] article, 5 when purchasing products the officer, board or agency of any political 6 subdivision or of any district therein charged with the awarding of 7 public contracts may, wherever recycled products meet contract specifi- 8 cations and the price of such products is reasonably competitive, 9 purchase such products. For the purpose of this [section] subdivision 10 and until July first, nineteen hundred ninety-six, "recycled product" 11 shall mean any product which has been manufactured from secondary mate- 12 rials, as defined in subdivision one of section two hundred sixty-one of 13 the economic development law, and meets secondary material content 14 requirements adopted by the office of general services [under subdivi- 15 sion one of section one hundred seventy-seven of the state finance law] 16 for products available to the political subdivision or district under 17 state contract or, if no such contract for such product is available, 18 any product which meets the secondary material content requirements 19 adopted by the political subdivision or district thereof with respect to 20 a specific commodity procurement by such entity. On and after July 21 first, nineteen hundred ninety-six, "recycled product" shall mean, for 22 the purposes of this [section] subdivision, any product which is manu- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD10445-01-5 
 A. 7117 2 1 factured from secondary materials, as defined in subdivision one of 2 section two hundred sixty-one of the economic development law, and which 3 meets the requirements of subdivision two of section 27-0717 of the 4 environmental conservation law and regulations promulgated pursuant 5 thereto. For the purpose of this [section] subdivision, "reasonably 6 competitive" shall mean that the cost of the recycled product does not 7 exceed a cost premium of ten percent above the cost of a comparable 8 product that is not a recycled product or, if at least fifty percent of 9 the secondary materials utilized in the manufacture of that product are 10 generated from the waste stream in New York state, the cost of the recy- 11 cled product does not exceed a cost premium of fifteen percent above the 12 cost of a comparable product that is not a recycled product. 13 Whenever such officer, board or agency shall purchase or cause the 14 purchase of printing on recycled paper pursuant to this section, [he or 15 she] they shall require the printed material to contain the official 16 state recycling emblem established pursuant to subdivision two of 17 section 27-0717 of the environmental conservation law and regulations 18 promulgated pursuant thereto if such paper has been approved by the 19 department of environmental conservation as satisfying the requirements 20 of such statute and regulations, or, if such paper has not been so 21 approved, require the printed material to include a printed statement 22 which indicates the percentages of pre-consumer and post-consumer recy- 23 cled material content of such paper. 24 2. Notwithstanding the provisions of section one hundred three of this 25 article, when purchasing goods, services or construction for public use, 26 the officer, board or agency of any political subdivision or of any 27 district therein charged with the awarding of public contracts that 28 employ a minority or women owned business enterprise (MWBE) program, may 29 award any contract valued at no more than one million dollars to a 30 participant of such program even if such participant is not the lowest 31 bidder for such contract, provided, however that such award may only be 32 made to the lowest MWBE bid that is reasonably competitive. For the 33 purpose of this subdivision, an "MWBE program" shall be defined as a 34 program designed to increase participation of MWBEs in public contract- 35 ing that is based on a study in which it was found that there is or has 36 been a disparity between the availability and the utilization of MWBEs 37 in the award of contracts by such political subdivision or district 38 therein. For the purpose of this subdivision, "reasonably competitive" 39 shall mean that the MWBE bid does not exceed the lowest bid by more than 40 ten percent. 41 § 2. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall 42 have become a law.