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Ohio Resident Bidder Preference
Revised August 14, 2024
Ohio Revised Code
Title I. State Government
Chapter 125. Department of Administrative Services – Office Services
(A) Pursuant to sections 125.07 , 125.071 , and 125.072 of the Revised Code , the department of administrative services may prescribe such conditions under which competitive sealed bids, competitive sealed proposals, and bids in reverse auctions will be received and terms of the proposed purchase as it considers necessary; provided, that all such conditions and terms shall be reasonable and shall not unreasonably restrict competition, and bidders may bid and offerors may propose upon all or any item of the products or services listed in such notice. Those bidders and offerors claiming the preference outlined in this chapter shall designate in their bid or offer whether the product is mined, excavated, produced, manufactured, raised, or grown in the United States and is either a Buy Ohio product or that the product or service is provided by a bidder or offeror that qualifies as having a significant economic presence in the state or a state bordering Ohio, under the rules established by the director of administrative services, and whether the bidder or offeror is a certified veteran-friendly business enterprise under section 122.925 of the Revised Code .
(B) The director of administrative services shall, by rule adopted pursuant to Chapter 119. of the Revised Code, prescribe criteria and procedures for use by all state agencies in giving preference under this section as required by division (B) of section 125.11 of the Revised Code. The rules shall extend to:
(1) Criteria for determining that a product is mined, excavated, produced, manufactured, raised, or grown in the United States rather than in another country or territory;
(2) Criteria for determining that a product is a Buy Ohio Product;
(3) Information to be submitted by bidders or offerors as to the nature of a product and the location where it is mined, excavated, produced, manufactured, raised, or grown;
(4) Criteria and procedures to be used by the director to qualify bidders or offerors located in states bordering Ohio who might otherwise be excluded from being awarded a contract by operation of this section and section 125.11 of the Revised Code. The criteria and procedures shall recognize the level and regularity of interstate commerce between Ohio and the border states and provide that the non-Ohio businesses may qualify for award of a contract as long as they are located in a state that imposes no greater restrictions than are contained in this section and section 125.11 of the Revised Code upon persons located in Ohio selling products or services to agencies of that state. The criteria and procedures shall also provide that a non-Ohio business shall not bid on a contract for state printing in this state if the business is located in a state that excludes Ohio businesses from bidding on state printing contracts in that state.
(5) Criteria and procedures to be used to qualify bidders and offerors whose manufactured products, except for mined products, are produced in other states or in North America, but the bidders or offerors have a significant Ohio economic presence in terms of the number of employees or capital investment a bidder or offeror has in this state. Bidders and offerors with a significant Ohio economic presence shall qualify for award of a contract on the same basis as if their products were produced in this state or as if the bidder or offeror was domiciled in this state.
125.11. Award of contract; sufficient competition
(A) Subject to division (B) of this section, contracts awarded pursuant to a reverse auction under section 125.072 of the Revised Code or pursuant to competitive sealed bidding, including contracts awarded under section 125.081 of the Revised Code, shall be awarded to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder in accordance with section 9.312 of the Revised Code, and contracts awarded pursuant to a competitive sealed proposal shall be awarded to the offeror determined to be the most advantageous to this state.
(B) Prior to awarding a contract under division (A) of this section, the department of administrative services or the state agency responsible for evaluating a contract for the purchase of products or services shall evaluate the bids and offers received according to the criteria and procedures established pursuant to division (B) of section 125.09 of the Revised Code for determining if a product is mined, excavated, produced, manufactured, raised, or grown in the United States, in this state, or in a state bordering Ohio, whether the bid or offer was received from a Buy Ohio supplier, and whether the bid or offer was received from a certified veteran-friendly business enterprise. These requirements shall be applied where sufficient competition can be generated to ensure that compliance with these requirements will be in the best interest of the state unless otherwise prohibited.
(C) Division (B) of this section applies to contracts for which competitive selection is waived by the controlling board.
(D) Division (B) of this section does not apply to the purchase by the division of liquor control of spirituous liquor.
125.56. Printing to be done within state exception for special paper
(A) Except as provided in division (B) of this section, all printing under sections 125.43 to 125.76 of the Revised Code, shall be executed pursuant to section 125.11 of the Revised Code.
(B) Division (A) of this section does not apply to printing contracts requiring special, security paper of a unique nature if compliance with division (A) will result in an excessive price for the product or acquiring a disproportionately inferior product.
(C) As used in this section, "excessive price" means a price that exceeds by more than five per cent the lowest price submitted on a non-Ohio bid.
Ohio Revised Code
Title I. State Government
Chapter 153. Public Improvements
153.012. Preference to Ohio contractors
With respect to the award of any contract for the construction, reconstruction, improvement, enlargement, alteration, repair, painting or decoration of a public improvement, including any highway improvement, made by the state or in whole or in part supported by the state, except for a contract for products produced or mined in Ohio or for a contract financed in whole or in part by contributions or loans from any agency of the United States government, preference shall be given to contractors having their principal place of business in Ohio over contractors having their principal place of business in a state which provides a preference in that state in favor of contractors of that state for the same type of work. Where a preference is provided by another state for contractors of that state, contractors having their principal place of business in Ohio are to be granted in Ohio the same preference over them in the same manner and on the same basis and to the same extent as the preference is granted in letting contracts for the same type of work by the other state. If one party to a joint venture is a contractor having its principal place of business in Ohio, the joint venture shall be considered as having its principal place of business in Ohio.
123 Administrative Services Department
123:5 Purchasing Division
Chapter 123:5-1 State Purchasing and Bid Procedures; Ohio Preference
123:5-1-01 Definitions
As used in this division of the Administrative Code:
(F) “Border state” means any state that is contiguous to Ohio and that does not impose a restriction greater than Ohio imposes pursuant to sections 125.09 and 125.11 of the Revised Code on persons located in Ohio selling products or services to agencies of that state.
(J) “Domestic Source End Product” means
(1) An unmanufactured end product mined or produced in the United States, or
(2) An end product manufactured in the United States, if the cost of its components mined, produced, or manufactured in the United States, exceeds fifty per cent of the cost of all its components of foreign origin of the same class or kind as those that the department determines are not mined, produced, or manufactured in sufficient and reasonably available commercial quantities of a satisfactory quality are treated as domestic. Scrap generated, collected, and prepared for processing in the United States is considered domestic.
(M) “Invitation to bid” or “ITB” means all documents, whether attached or incorporated by reference, utilized for soliciting bids.
(P) “Buy Ohio supplier” means a supplier submitting a bid or offer offering Buy Ohio products or demonstrating significant economic presence in Ohio or a border state.
(Q) “Buy Ohio products” means products that are mined, excavated, produced, manufactured, raised, or grown in Ohio or a border state by a person where the input of such products, labor, skill, or other services constitutes no less than twenty-five per cent of the manufactured cost. With respect to mined products, such products shall be mined or excavated in this state or a border state.
(AA) “Request for proposal” or “RFP” means all documents, whether attached or incorporated by reference, utilized for soliciting proposals from offerors.
(BB) “Significant Ohio economic presence” means business organizations that:
(1) Pay required taxes to the state of Ohio or applicable border state; and
(2) Are registered and licensed to do business in the state of Ohio with the office of the secretary of state or as required by applicable border state; and
(3) Have ten or more employees based in Ohio or the applicable border state, or seventy-five per cent or more of their employees based in Ohio or the applicable border state.
Ohio preferences
(A) Bidders and offerors may claim preferences in a procurement solicitation response for any or all of the following: offering domestic source end products; qualification as a buy Ohio supplier; or qualification as a veteran-friendly business enterprise, all as described in this rule.
Information furnished in the solicitation response by the bidder or offeror shall be relied upon in making the determination about whether a preference applies, but the state may verify such information if necessary. Any bidder or offeror who intentionally submits false or misleading information to receive a preference will be immediately disqualified and may be subject to administrative or legal action.
Preferences shall be applied except in those circumstances where the director of the department of administrative services or the director's designee determines compliance would not be in the best interest of the state or when otherwise prohibited.
(1) Buy American preference. Bidder and offeror responses will be evaluated to determine whether a response includes a domestic source end product for the buy American preference.
(2) Buy Ohio preference. Bidder and offeror responses will be evaluated to give preference to all bids and offers received from a buy Ohio supplier for products raised, grown, produced, mined or manufactured in Ohio or a border state or for products and services offered by a supplier demonstrating significant economic presence in Ohio or a border state.
(3) Veteran-friendly business enterprise preference. Bidder and offeror responses will be evaluated to give preference to all bidders and offerors who are certified veteran-friendly business enterprises. In order to qualify for this preference, a bidder or offer must have an active veteran-friendly business enterprise certification at the due date and time of bid or offer.
(B) Procedures for applying preferences
Following the initial evaluation and scoring, all bids and offers will be considered for preferences. Preferences will be calculated at a rate of five per cent for the first preference and two per cent each for the second and third preferences. The preferences shall be summed and applied as a total percentage for evaluation purposes.
Preferences will only be applied when there is at least one bidder or offeror that does not qualify for that particular preference. For purposes of qualifying for a particular preference, if a bidder or offeror fails to complete the certification for each preference, that supplier will be deemed as not qualifying for that preference.
(1) Procedure for applying preferences to bids in response to an invitation to bid or reverse auction:
(a) For the buy American preference, if any bidder offers a product that is not a domestic source end product, reduce the cost of any other bidder's domestic source end products offered by the applicable percentage.
(b) For the buy Ohio preference, for any qualifying buy Ohio supplier claiming the preference, when there is at least one other bidder that is not a buy Ohio supplier, deduct the applicable percentage from the buy Ohio supplier's cost.
(c) If the bid contains multiple line items or multiple products, the preferences in paragraphs (B)(1)(a) and (B)(2)(b) of this rule will be applied per line item or only for that particular product.
(d) For the veteran-friendly enterprise preference, if a bidder is a certified veteran-friendly business enterprise claiming the preference and there are other bidders not claiming the preference, deduct the applicable percentage from any certified veteran-friendly enterprise bidders' cost.
(2) Procedure for applying preferences to offers in response to a request for proposals:
(a) For the buy American preference, if any offeror offers a product that is not a domestic source end product, add the applicable percentage of the total available points to the total score of each offeror offering a domestic source end product.
(b) For the buy Ohio preference, if any offeror is a buy Ohio supplier claiming the preference, and there is at least one other offer that is not a buy Ohio supplier add the applicable percentage of the total available points to each buy Ohio supplier's total score.
(c) If claiming the preferences in paragraphs (B)(2)(a) and (B)(2)(b) of this rule based on the product(s) offered, an offeror is only eligible to receive the preference if the cost of the product(s) offered exceeds fifty per cent of the total offered cost for products and services. A buy Ohio supplier is eligible to receive the buy Ohio preference solely based on its significant economic presence in Ohio or a border state regardless of the origin of any product offered.
(d) For the veteran-friendly enterprise preference, if any offeror is a certified veteran-friendly business enterprise claiming the preference and there is an offeror who is not claiming the preference, add the applicable percentage of the total available points to any certified veteran-friendly enterprise offeror's total score.
(3) After application of the preferences in this rule, the director or the director's designee shall consider for award the lowest bid or highest scoring offer as adjusted by the preferences. If the director of the department of administrative services or the director's designee determines that selection of the lowest bidder or the highest scoring offeror as adjusted by the preferences would not be in the best interests of the state, the director or the director's designee shall propose a contract award to the lowest responsible and responsive bid or to the offeror with the most advantageous offer.
The final contract award shall be made following further evaluation and award under rules 123:5-1-07 and 123:5-1-08 of the Administrative Code.
(C) Model system of preferences
This system of preferences as outlined in this rule may be used voluntarily by counties, townships, and municipalities for purchasing contracts.
State of Ohio Procurement Manual
2.4 Procurement Considerations
2.4.1.3 Buy Ohio and Buy American
Buy Ohio and Buy American bid preferences are enabled by RC 125.09, RC 125.11, and OAC 123:5-1-06. These preferences permit bids containing products that are produced in Ohio or a border state, or the United States of America, to be selected for contract award even if they exceed prices offered in bids not containing Ohio, border state, or American products by no more than 5% or 6%, respectively. State Agencies should apply these preferences when making purchases under their direct purchase authority, specify which preference(s) will be applied in the solicitation, and request information as to the point of manufacture and the location of the supplier.