Public Works Projects.  Public entities are required to go through a competitive bid process for public works projects estimated to cost over a certain dollar amount.  That amount varies depending on the entity and how many trades may be involved in the project.  The awarded contract must go to the responsible bidder who submits the lowest responsive bid.

Bid Limits for Public Institutions of Higher Education.  The bid limit established for a competitive sealed bid process for a regional university, state university, or community and technical college (CTC) is limited to an amount equal to or more than $90,000 for any building, construction, renovation, remodeling, or demolition, or other maintenance and repairs.  If the work only involves one trade or craft area, the amount may be equal to or more than $45,000.

The bid limits established for public works projects at a regional university, state university, or CTC are increased.  For any building, construction, renovation, remodeling, or demolition, or other maintenance and repairs, the bid limit is increased from $90,000 to $110,000.  For work involving only one trade or craft area it is increased from $45,000 to $90,000.

PRO:  These bid limits have not changed for a long time.  Our institutions need these bid limits increased.  We need to change the bid limits to acknowledge the increase in costs for labor and materials.  The bid limit hasn’t changed in over a decade.  The cost of things since 2008 have increased more than 100 percent for many of the materials used in these projects.  There are plenty of jobs that could be done in house, but the cost of things now put them over the single-trade limit.  The types of jobs we do are small capital projects.  We never do large scale projects.  Using in-house labor provides a lot of flexibility and may save institutions money.  Raising the limit will increase response time.  These employees are on staff, and already being paid.