Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. today announced that his legislation to extend the expiration of provisions of law that grant localities greater contract flexibility, by authorizing shared purchasing, has been signed into law by the Governor (Ch. 95 of the Laws of 2021). This legislation was carried by Senator Jim Gaughran in the Senate. Both Assemblyman Thiele and Senator Gaughran serve as the Chairs of the Local Governments committees in their respective legislative chambers.

This new law will extend the authority 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, until July 31, 2023. 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 proven to reduce the administrative costs and burdens by localities and the costs related to goods and services, resulting in savings to the governmental entities that utilize cooperative purchasing. Under current statute, the authority to realize these savings will expire on July 31, 2021.

Assemblyman Thiele stated, “I am proud to have passed this important legislation to help our municipalities continue to enter into cooperative purchasing agreements, which have resulted in significant savings to reduce the cost-pressures on their budgets and on taxpayers. I thank my colleagues for supporting this bill and am pleased to see it become law.”