AUGUSTA, Maine — State purchasing officials are looking at ways to expand cooperative efforts already in use by some schools to cuts costs.
“We should be able to get some more savings for schools if we expand the efforts and combine the purchasing power of the state,” said Rep. David Webster, D-Freeport.
At the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee meetings last week, Webster asked several questions of officials about whether the state should consider including schools, and other institutions such as nonprofit agencies and municipalities, when buying items such as fuel oil for state use.
“I think [the bulk buying] is worth looking at,” Webster said.
So does Education Commissioner Susan Gendron. She told the committee that several school districts already realize “significant” savings through a Web-based portal that allows several districts to combine their purchases for the range of supplies they need.
“It is working and it is working well,” she told lawmakers. “I think there are ways we can expand [on these] cooperative efforts.”
Gendron said the system was the result of a four-year pilot project that allows a school to post its need for particular items with detailed specifications. According to the Department of Education Web site, the participating schools saved an average of 10 percent on laptops, 13 percent on ink cartridges, 24 percent on furniture and equipment, and 53 percent on cleaning supplies.
Webster suggested the savings could be greater by taking the next step and having the state negotiate a price for a commodity such as fuel oil for not only all state facilities, but schools as well. He said if a school wanted to pay more, they could, but the state would only reimburse through the school funding formula at the lower, state price.
Chip Gavin, director of the state Bureau of General Services, agreed there may be some savings in specific areas, but cautioned his agency is not geared to handle such an increase in purchasing.
“Before you can buy things that all of those other entities that we don’t currently get involved with need, we need to know what it is,” he said, “that in of itself is a huge undertaking before you can even get to the notion of doing purchasing for them.”
Gavin said handling the hundreds of millions of dollars in goods and services that the state makes every year is already a difficult job without adding the additional complexities of more items and more government units.
“To take the step and say we are going to do that for all the hundreds of municipalities in the state and all of the school units or districts; it would be hard for me to understate what a large undertaking that is, “ he said.
But Gavin said the agency would look at specific items, such as fuel oil, to see if a state-based purchasing system would yield savings in excess of the costs of implementing the system.
But some Appropriations Committee members are not enthusiastic about a major expansion of state purchasing.
“The assumption that the state should act as purchasing agent for something like No. 2 fuel oil seems to me would create a bureaucracy here at the state level,” said Rep. Robert Nutting, R-Oakland. “And if you follow that through to its ultimate conclusion, there would be one oil company.”
He said the state should not be creating a large bureaucracy of employees to do what now is being done at the local level. He said local municipalities and school districts that voluntarily work together should be encouraged to continue.
“We need to be looking at everything that can provide savings,” said Rep. Emily Cain, D-Orono, the co-chairwoman of the panel. “We can’t say just because we have not done it before, that we should not look at it now.”
The committee meets again in August and Gavin hopes to have more information for the panel on options that could yield savings. He said some opportunities already exist through the state.
“There is already the ability of local school districts and municipalities to buy through the contracts we have for some items, “Gavin said. “A list of those contracts is published on our Web site.”
He said the agency has taken steps to publicize the contracts local governments and school districts can access.