Washington State's Capital Projects Advisory Review Board (CPARB) voted on Thursday, February 10, 2011 to endorse draft legislation that would help small businesses interested in performing public works projects.
The legislation would accomplish two things:
- Waiver of Bonding and Retainage: Enable public agencies to waive payment and performance bonds and retainage on public works projects of $5,000 or less that are not selected through the Limited Public Works process (a subset of the Small Works Roster authorized in RCW 39.04.155). Not having to submit the bonds is a cost savings to small contractors, as well as a convenience issue, and obtaining the full amount of each progress payment without retainage increases the cash flow of small businesses, reducing the need to borrow money.
- Increase Threshold for Combined Prevailing Wage Form: Increase the threshold from $2,500 to $5,000 for when a contractor could submit a combined "Statement of Intent to Pay Prevailing Wages" and "Affidavit of Wages Paid." The combined prevailing wage form is a less cumbersome and quicker process for small businesses, saving them both time and money.
CPARB will work with legislators to get the bill introduced quickly in order for it to have time to be considered during the current legislative session. No bill number has yet been assigned because it has not formally been introduced yet.
The idea for the bill came out of the work of CPARB's Small Business Task Force.
Mike Purdy's Public Contracting Blog© 2011 by Michael E. Purdy Associates, LLChttp://PublicContracting.blogspot.com
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