MONTGOMERY — The Senate County and Municipal Government committee approved on Tuesday legislation allowing state and local governments to advertise for public contracts online rather than solely in print newspapers.
Under existing law, before entering into any contract for public works involving an amount over $100,000, an awarding authority must advertise for sealed bids in a specified manner, which generally includes advertisement by newspaper once a week for three consecutive weeks.
The bill sponsored by State Sen. Chris Elliott (R-Josephine) would provide additional means for public notice of the public contract to be published, including a method of publication on a website, application, or other digital platform maintained by the Department of Finance.
Notices are a significant source of revenue for local newspapers, but multiple errors in public notices in recent years have led to some projects having to be re-bid, increasing taxpayer costs.
Elliott said during the meeting he was "not trying to drive a death knell into the heart of local newspapers who are already struggling."
"The short and sweet of it is allowing counties, cities, and the state the option of publishing an invitation to bid to public contractors on a website maintained by the Department of Finance and some others. The county commissions have their website that they've used from Rebuild (Alabama Act) and we've put that in there," Elliott said. "Our methods of digesting news have changed over the years. I appreciate our local newspapers. The intent of this statute, when originally passed, was to invite competition and to invite bidders to come compete. I'm just not sure that our local print newspapers are the best venue to invite competition at this time. It does absolutely allow the continued publication in the newspaper, and that could be made on a case-by-case basis if the awarding authority decides that's what best for their particular area, but there's some areas where they don't have a newspaper anymore."
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