Florida Senate - 2012                                     SB 538
       
       
       
       By Senators Bogdanoff and Gaetz
       
       
       
       
       25-00370B-12                                           2012538__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to preference to Florida businesses in
    3         procurement of personal property and services;
    4         providing a short title; amending s. 283.35, F.S.;
    5         requiring an agency, county, municipality, school
    6         district, or other political subdivision of the state
    7         to grant a specified preference to a vendor located
    8         within the state when awarding a contract for
    9         printing; specifying the percentage of preference to
   10         be granted; amending s. 287.084, F.S.; requiring,
   11         rather than authorizing, an agency, county,
   12         municipality, school district, or other political
   13         subdivision of the state in making purchases of
   14         personal property through competitive solicitation to
   15         award a preference to the lowest responsible and
   16         responsive vendor having a principal place of business
   17         within this state under specified circumstances;
   18         specifying the percentage of preference to be granted;
   19         providing nonapplicability; providing an effective
   20         date.
   21  
   22  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   23  
   24         Section 1. This act may be cited as the “Buy Florida Act.”
   25         Section 2. Section 283.35, Florida Statutes, is amended to
   26  read:
   27         283.35 Preference given printing within the state.—Every
   28  agency shall give preference to vendors located within the state
   29  When awarding a contract contracts to have materials printed,
   30  the agency, county, municipality, school district, or other
   31  political subdivision of this state awarding the contract shall
   32  grant a preference to the lowest responsible and responsive
   33  vendor having a principal place of business within this state.
   34  The preference shall be 5 percent if the lowest bid is submitted
   35  by a vendor whose principal place of business is located outside
   36  the state and if the whenever such printing can be performed in
   37  this state done at no greater expense than the expense of
   38  awarding a contract to a vendor located outside the state and
   39  can be done at a level of quality comparable to that obtainable
   40  from the a vendor submitting the lowest bid located outside the
   41  state.
   42         Section 3. Section 287.084, Florida Statutes, is amended to
   43  read:
   44         287.084 Preference to Florida businesses.—
   45         (1)(a) When an agency, county, municipality, school
   46  district, or other political subdivision of the state is
   47  required to make purchases of personal property through
   48  competitive solicitation and the lowest responsible and
   49  responsive bid, proposal, or reply is by a vendor whose
   50  principal place of business is in a state or political
   51  subdivision thereof which grants a preference for the purchase
   52  of such personal property to a person whose principal place of
   53  business is in such state, then the agency, county,
   54  municipality, school district, or other political subdivision of
   55  this state shall may award a preference to the lowest
   56  responsible and responsive vendor having a principal place of
   57  business within this state, which preference is equal to the
   58  preference granted by the state or political subdivision thereof
   59  in which the lowest responsible and responsive vendor has its
   60  principal place of business. In a competitive solicitation in
   61  which the lowest bid is submitted by a vendor whose principal
   62  place of business is located outside the state and that state
   63  does not grant a preference in competitive solicitation to
   64  vendors having a principal place of business in that state, the
   65  preference to the lowest responsible and responsive vendor
   66  having a principal place of business in this state shall be 5
   67  percent.
   68         (b) Paragraph (a) However, this section does not apply to
   69  transportation projects for which federal aid funds are
   70  available.
   71         (2) If a solicitation provides for the granting of such
   72  preference as is provided in this section, Any vendor whose
   73  principal place of business is outside the State of Florida must
   74  accompany any written bid, proposal, or reply documents with a
   75  written opinion of an attorney at law licensed to practice law
   76  in that foreign state, as to the preferences, if any or none,
   77  granted by the law of that state to its own business entities
   78  whose principal places of business are in that foreign state in
   79  the letting of any or all public contracts.
   80         Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2012.