Bill
S 3041
Strengthens prevailing-wage enforcement in NJ public-work cooperatives; extends 3-year ineligibility to any cooperative vendor that fails to pay wages, improving transparency.
Status & procedural history
- Introduced in the New Jersey Senate April 8, 2024; reported favorably by Senate and Assembly committees with amendments (Dec 2024 – Jun 2025).
- Passed both houses June 30, 2025 (Senate and Assembly).
- Governor returned the bill with a conditional veto October 20, 2025, recommending technical clarifications (primarily to confirm DLGS rulemaking authority for entities governed by the Local Public Contracts Law, Public School Contracts Law, and County College Contracts Law). As of late October 2025 the measure had been rereferred to committee.
- Original effective-date language: 90 days after enactment (conditional on final enactment).
Purpose / intent
- Strengthen prevailing-wage enforcement and procurement transparency when public contracting uses cooperatives (including nationally-recognized cooperative purchasing agreements). Ensure public works procured through cooperatives comply with New Jersey prevailing wage and contractor registration requirements, and close potential avoidance routes through cooperative arrangements.
Key provisions and changes
- Extends the existing three-year prohibition (for contractors/subcontractors who fail to pay required prevailing wages) to cooperatives in which any cooperative-approved vendor has failed to pay prevailing wages. The existing three-year ineligibility period remains unchanged.
- Defines “cooperative” as a system of collective ownership in which shareholders/co-owners have a long-term proprietary interest or long-term control arrangement. Defines “vendor” to include any person, firm, corporation, or other entity offering goods/services or proposing to perform a contract.
- Cooperative purchasing constraints:
- A contracting unit may only purchase construction services for public-works projects via a cooperative purchasing agreement if that cooperative contract was competitively bid in compliance with the bill and was let by a contracting unit in New Jersey.
- Public works procured via cooperative agreements must comply with the Public Works Contractor Registration Act and the New Jersey Prevailing Wage Act.
- Prohibits use of time-and-materials contracts available through a cooperative for public works subject to the Prevailing Wage Act. (Time-and-materials: actual material costs + direct labor at fixed hourly rates that include wages, overhead, G&A, and profit.)
- Reporting, records, and transparency:
- Contracting units must verify and retain accurate contractor information (principal business address, in-state custodian/agent if out-of-state) and retain certified payroll records for at least three years.
- Contractors failing to submit certified payroll records more than three times, or found violating prevailing wage requirements, are barred from performing public works under a cooperative.
- Contracting units must publicly post monthly cost and compliance information (contracting unit, cooperative contract number, contractor, project cost, payroll-record receipt confirmation).
- Debarment checks & enforcement:
- Contracting units must perform monthly checks against the NJ Department of Labor & Workforce Development debarment list and terminate any (sub)contract with newly debarred parties.
- Noncompliant contracting units may be prohibited by the Director of the Division of Local Government Services (DLGS) from serving as a lead agency for a cooperative purchasing agreement.
- Authorizes indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts with a set term for goods/services (including public works) if let through a free, open, competitive process with defined purchase-order procedures.
Who is affected
- Contracting units (state agencies, local governments, boards of education, county colleges), cooperatives and cooperative-approved vendors, contractors and subcontractors performing public works in New Jersey, the Department of Labor & Workforce Development, and the Division of Local Government Services.
Fiscal impact
- Reported not to require a fiscal note; no major state fiscal estimate attached in committee reports.
Notes / next steps
- The governor’s conditional veto requested clarifying regulatory authority for DLGS over entities governed by specific procurement statutes; the bill’s final content and enactment depend on further legislative action to address those recommendations.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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