Wicks Law requires localities to hire multiple contractors for every building project, in effect requiring the local government to coordinate between the contractors and attempt to keep projects on time and on budget.

The law requires separate contractors for heating, plumbing, and electrical duties on projects larger than $50,000 - in addition to a general contractor.

The original intent of the law, which dates to 1912, was to prevent corruption in bidding for public projects and protect subcontractors from having their costs undercut by unscrupulous prime contractors.

The law drives up construction costs by as much as 20 or 30 percent, causing local governments, school districts and of course taxpayers to pay more than they should have to for new buildings.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers study of New York City estimated savings of $192 million because schools in the Big Apple are exempt from the Wicks Law. Having a single prime contractor is the most cost-effective way to run a project - public authorities, private companies and school systems (New York City and Buffalo) that have a choice use single prime contracting for their projects.

Multiple prime contractors drive up costs because separate bids and specifications have to be prepared for each prime contractor, and each contractor's bid includes a mark up. Even more importantly, because a general contractor cannot be hired to coordinate all the construction, the public agency must coordinate the work. Coordination problems result in delays, miscommunication, errors and litigation that make public construction unnecessarily costly.

The Wicks Law should be repealed.

Short of that, the threshold for applying the requirement should be raised from $50,000 to $2 million per project. New York has already set a precedent of allowing certain entities waivers from the Wicks Law to save money: the Buffalo and New York City schools, as well as the Niagara Falls school district on a specific project.

We should build upon that start so that all areas of the state benefit.