On Thursday, the Alabama Senate passed legislation that would double the size of government purchases that are not subject to the competitive bid process. The current cap is $15,000. This legislation would raise that to $30,000 and then raise it annually as the consumer price index increases.
Senate Bill 108 (SB108) is sponsored by State Senator Linda Coleman-Madison.
Sen. Coleman-Madison explained that under current Alabama public contract law, government entities have to submit any purchase of $15,000 and over to the public bid process. The current bid law was set years ago, and inflation has caused everything to go up. This raises it to $30,000 and ties the amount “to the consumer price index so they don’t have to come back.”
“This is subject to review every three years,” explained Sen. Coleman-Madison.
According to the synopsis, “Under existing law, with the exception of contracts for public works, all expenditure of funds of whatever nature for labor, services, work, or for the purchase or lease of materials, equipment, supplies, or other personal property involving $15,000 or more made by or on behalf of certain state and local public awarding authorities are required to be made by contractual agreement entered into by free and open competitive bidding, on sealed bids, to the lowest responsible bidder. This bill would increase various threshold dollar amounts for which competitive bidding is generally required and would authorize those dollar amounts to be further increased based on increases in the Consumer Price Index.”
Advocates for competitive bids argue that insiders get government sales and contracts without competitive bids, while persons outside of the political “good ole boy” networks are left out, and that competitive bidding saves taxpayer dollars.
SB108 passed the Senate 31 to 0. The bill now goes to the Alabama House of Representatives for their consideration. SB108 has been referred to the House State Government Committee.
Tuesday will be day 8 of the 2023 Alabama Regular Legislative Session. The House of Representatives will convene at 1:00 p.m. The Senate will convene at 3:00 p.m. Both sessions can be viewed online at the legislature’s website. The legislature is limited to thirty legislative days in a regular session.
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