N.Y. State Finance Law § 135 (2026)

§ 135. Separate specifications for contract work for the state. Except
as otherwise provided in section two hundred twenty-two of the labor
law, every officer, board, department, commission or commissions,
charged with the duty of preparing specifications or awarding or
entering into contracts for the erection, construction or alteration of
buildings, for the state, when the entire cost of such work shall exceed
three million dollars in the counties of the Bronx, Kings, New York,
Queens, and Richmond; one million five hundred thousand dollars in the
counties of Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester; and five hundred thousand
dollars in all other counties within the state, must have prepared
separate specifications for each of the following three subdivisions of
the work to be performed:
  1. Plumbing and gas fitting.
  2. Steam heating, hot water heating, ventilating and air conditioning
apparatus.
  3. Electric wiring and standard illuminating fixtures.
  Such specifications must be so drawn as to permit separate and
independent bidding upon each of the above three subdivisions of work.
All contracts hereafter awarded by the state or a department, board,
commissioner or officer thereof, for the erection, construction or
alteration of buildings, or any part thereof, shall award the three
subdivisions of the above specified work separately to responsible and
reliable persons, firms or corporations engaged in these classes of
work. A contract for one or more buildings in any project shall be
awarded to the lowest responsible bidder for all the buildings included
in the specifications.
  Each bidder on a public work contract, where the preparation of
separate specifications is not required, shall submit with its bid a
separate sealed list that names each subcontractor that the bidder will
use to perform work on the contract, and the agreed-upon amount to be
paid to each, for: (a) plumbing and gas fitting, (b) steam heating, hot
water heating, ventilating and air conditioning apparatus and (c)
electric wiring and standard illuminating fixtures. After the low bid is
announced, the sealed list of subcontractors submitted with such low bid
shall be opened and the names of such subcontractors shall be announced,
and thereafter any change of subcontractor or agreed-upon amount to be
paid to each shall require the approval of the public owner, upon a
showing presented to the public owner of legitimate construction need
for such change, which shall be open to public inspection. Legitimate
construction need shall include, but not be limited to, a change in
project specifications, a change in construction material costs, a
change to subcontractor status as determined pursuant to paragraph (e)
of subdivision two of section two hundred twenty-two of the labor law,
or the subcontractor has become otherwise unwilling, unable or
unavailable to perform the subcontract. The sealed lists of
subcontractors submitted by all other bidders shall be returned to them
unopened after the contract award.
  Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the authorities
in charge of any state building, from performing any such branches of
work by or through their regular employees, or in the case of public
institutions, by the incarcerated individuals thereof.