NJ S3525

Requires boards of education, municipalities, counties, and other local contracting units to conduct cost savings analyses before procuring goods or services to determine whether using a cooperative purchasing system would save money

Mandates that if a purchasing agent determines cooperative purchasing will result in cost savings, the contracting unit must utilize that cooperative purchasing system

Cost savings analysis must include factors such as charges for service, materials, delivery, soft costs, acquisition costs, and traditional bidding costs like cost overruns, protests, rework, and change orders

Requires contracting units to verify contractor and subcontractor compliance with 13 categories of State and federal laws before awarding contracts, including anti-discrimination laws, prevailing wage requirements, business registration, and prohibitions on activities in Belarus and Russia

Adds a formal definition of "cooperative purchasing system" to include cooperative pricing systems, joint purchasing systems, commodity resale systems, county cooperative contract purchasing systems, and regional cooperative pricing systems