New laws could cut price of public works projects.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Labor Committee Chair Susan John this week announced the house would consider legislation aimed at reforming the state's Wicks Law to bring about lower construction costs for state and local government public-works projects. "These reforms will help municipalities reduce the cost of public works projects and assure quality construction to taxpayers. With these new Wicks Law changes, municipalities will be able to assess their project costs better as they make decisions to build, modernize, refurbish, and expand public facilities in ways that will benefit their communities now and into the future," said Silver.

"Wicks Law reforms were needed for local governments and their constituents, but also to protect the ability of subcontractors to compete for projects and provide jobs for their workers. With this legislation, skilled and safe performance on public construction projects is also assured," said John.

Dating back to the 1920's, the Wicks Law requires multiple contractors on major public-works projects.

The bill would extensively alter the Wicks Law by increasing the statute's $50,000 threshold for the first time in more than 40 years. Under the reforms, the project cost levels at which the law would apply are increased to $3 million in the Downstate region, $1.5 million in the suburbs and $500,000 Upstate.

Silver and John cited three key reform measures in the bill that would ensure prompt payments to contractors by reducing the payment period from 15 to seven days; require subcontractor bids to be sealed when submitted; and authorize the enforcement of public-works projects and prevailing-wage laws through the issuance of stop-bid orders by the Department of Labor.

In addition, the bill would allow project labor agreements to be reached between contractors and workers; encourage skills training in trades and crafts; and allow for contractors to be placed on a pre-bid qualification list to expedite project schedules.

The legislation builds upon the bipartisan agreements reached earlier this year to improve the state's business climate with measures to reform the workers compensation law, provide middle class property tax cuts and reduce taxes to businesses.