THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

SENATE BILL

INTRODUCED BY BRUBAKER, EICHELBERGER, KASUNIC, FOLMER, GORDNER, BOSCOLA, ORIE, RAFFERTY, YAW, M. WHITE, D. WHITE, ERICKSON, BAKER, ALLOWAY, GREENLEAF, SMUCKER, FERLO, ROBBINS, VANCE, EARLL, SCARNATI, McILHINNEY, PICCOLA AND MENSCH, JANUARY 26, 2011

SENATOR PICCOLA, EDUCATION, AS AMENDED, APRIL 5, 2011   

AN ACT

Amending the act of July 5, 1947 (P.L.1217, No.498), entitled

"An act to promote the education and educational facilities

of the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; creating a

State Public School Building Authority as a body corporate

and politic with power to construct, improve and operate

projects and to lease the same and to fix and collect fees,

rentals and charges for the use thereof; authorizing school

districts to enter into contracts to lease; authorizing and

regulating the issuance of bonds by said Authority; and

providing for the payment of such bonds and the rights of the

holders thereof; granting the right of eminent domain;

increasing the powers and duties of the Department of Public

Instruction; and providing that no debt of the Commonwealth

shall be incurred in the exercise of any of eminent domain;

increasing the powers and duties of the Department of Public

Instruction; and providing that no debt of the Commonwealth

shall be incurred in the exercise of any of the powers

granted under this act; and making an appropriation to said

Authority to pay expenses incident to its formation," further

providing for competitive bidding of contracts; and providing

for evasion of advertising requirements.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1.  Section 10 of the act of July 5, 1947 (P.L.1217,

No.498), known as the State Public School Building Authority

Act, amended April 20, 1949 (P.L.636, No.142), October 4, 1978

(P.L.1024, No.227) and December 22, 1981 (P.L.554, No.164), is

amended to read:

Section 10.  Competition in Award of Contracts.--(a)  If any

project or any portion thereof, or any improvement thereof,

shall be constructed pursuant to a contract, and the estimated

cost thereof exceeds [four thousand dollars ($4,000)] twenty-

five thousand dollars ($25,000), subject to adjustment under

clause (b), such contract shall be awarded to the lowest

responsible bidder after advertisement for bids once a week for

three weeks in at least one newspaper of general circulation in

the county where the project or improvement is located. The

authority may make rules and regulations for the submission of

bids and the construction or improvement of any project or

portion thereof. No contract shall be entered into for

construction or improvement of any project or portion thereof,

or for the purchase of materials, unless the contractor shall

give an undertaking with a sufficient surety or sureties

approved by the Authority, and in an amount fixed by the

Authority, for the faithful performance of the contract, and

such contract shall be accompanied by an additional bond for the

protection of those who furnish labor and material, for such

amount and subject to the same terms and conditions as

recommended by The Administrative Code of one thousand nine

hundred twenty-nine, as amended, on contracts entered into by

the Department of General Services for the erection of

buildings. All construction contracts shall provide, among other

things, that the person or corporation entering into such

contract with the Authority will pay for all materials furnished

and services rendered, for the performance of the contract, and

that any person or corporation furnishing such materials or

rendering such services may maintain an action to recover for

the same against the obligor in the undertaking as though such

person or corporation was named therein, provided the action is

brought within one year after the time the cause of action

accrued. Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the

power of the Authority to construct any project or portion

thereof or any addition, betterment or extension thereto,

directly by the officers, agents and employes of the Authority,

or otherwise than by contract.

Subject to the aforesaid, the Authority may (but without

intending by this provision to limit any powers of such

Authority), enter into and carry out such contracts, or

establish or comply with such rules and regulations concerning

labor and materials and other related matters in connection with

any project or portion thereof as the Authority may deem

desirable, or as may be requested by any Federal agency that may

assist in the financing of such project or any part thereof.

Every contract for the construction, reconstruction,

alteration, repair, improvement or maintenance of public works

shall comply with the provisions of the act of March 3, 1978

(P.L.6, No.3), known as the "Steel Products Procurement Act."

(b)  Adjustments shall be made as follows:

(1)  Every five years, beginning with the year in which this

subsection becomes applicable to contracts and purchases, the

Department of Labor and Industry shall calculate the average

percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban

Consumers (CPI-U) for the United States city average for all

items as published by the United States Department of Labor,

Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the preceding five-year period.

(2)  The positive percentage change, as determined in

accordance with paragraph (1), shall be multiplied by the amount

applicable under clause (a) for the current five-year period and

the product thereof shall be added to the amount applicable

under clause (a) for the current five-year period, with the

result rounded to the nearest multiple of one hundred dollars

($100).

(3)  The determination required under paragraph (1) and the

calculation of the adjustments required under paragraph (2)

shall be made in the period between October 1 and November 15 of

the year following the effective date of this subsection, and

between October 1 and November 15 of each successive year.

(4)  The adjusted amounts obtained in accordance with

paragraph (2) shall become effective January 1 for the five-year

period following the year in which the determination required

under paragraph (1) is made.

(5)  The Department of Labor and Industry shall give notice

in the Pennsylvania Bulletin prior to January 1 of each calendar

year in which the percentage change is determined in accordance

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with paragraph (1) and of the amounts, whether adjusted or

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unadjusted in accordance with paragraph (2), at which

competitive bidding is required under clause (a) for the five-

year period beginning the first day of January after publication

of the notice.

Section 2.  The act is amended by adding a section to read:

Section 10.1.  Evasion of Advertising Requirements.--No

member of the Authority shall evade the provisions of section 10

as to advertising for bids, by purchasing or contracting for

services and personal properties piecemeal to obtain prices

under the required advertising price, subject to annual

adjustment under section 10(b). This provision is intended to

make unlawful the evading of advertising requirements by making

a series of purchases or contracts each for less than the

advertising requirement price, or by making several simultaneous

purchases or contracts, each below said price, when in either

case, the transactions involved should have been made as one

transaction for one price. Any members of the Authority who so

vote in violation of this provision, and who know that the

transaction upon which they so vote is or ought to be a part of

a larger transaction, and that it is being divided in order to

evade the requirements as to advertising for bids, shall be

jointly and severally subject to surcharge for ten per centum of

the full amount of the contract or purchase. Whenever it shall

appear that a member of the Authority may have voted in

violation of this section, but the purchase or contract on which

the member so voted was not approved by the Authority, this

section shall be inapplicable.

Section 3.  The amendment or addition of sections 10 and 10.1

of the act shall apply to contracts and purchases advertised

after December 31 of the year in which this section takes effect 

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on or after January 1 of the year following the effective date

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of this section.

Section 4.  This act shall take effect immediately.