Reference Source

Competitive bid thresholds for local government by US state — the dollar amount at which a city, county or school district must formally bid, with statutory citations

State-by-state dollar thresholds at which a local government must put a purchase or a construction project out to formal competitive bidding. Each record is one state and one class of entity (municipalities, counties, school districts, or all local public bodies), with the amount the statute sets, the lower band where informal quotes are allowed instead, whether the figure is automatically inflation-adjusted, and the statutory citation. Thresholds range from $15,000 (California school district public projects) to $500,000 (North Carolina construction), and several states index the number annually — Ohio raises it 3% every year, Florida tracks the Engineering News-Record Building Cost Index. Answers 'what is the bid threshold for a city in [state]', 'does my school district have to bid this purchase', and 'what dollar amount triggers formal competitive bidding for a county'.

Records13
Sources13
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The data

State and entity typeStateEntity typeSpending categoryFormal bid threshold (as stated in statute)Threshold (normalised)Informal quote tierIndexationStatutory citation
California — school districtsCaliforniaschool districtsequipment, materials, supplies and services (higher figure); public projects as defined in Pub. Cont. Code § 22002(c) (lower figure)more than fifty thousand dollars ($50,000)$50,000 for equipment, materials, supplies and services; $15,000 for public projectsnone stated in this sectionadjusted annually by the Superintendent for the change in the Implicit Price Deflator, rounded to the nearest $100Cal. Pub. Cont. Code § 20111
Florida — counties, municipalities and special districtsFloridacounties, municipalities, special districts and other political subdivisionspublic construction works (higher figure); electrical work (lower figure)estimated to cost more than $300,000$300,000 for construction; $75,000 for electrical worknone stated in this sectionadjusted by the change in the Engineering News-Record Building Cost Index from January 1, 2009 to January 1 of the year the project is scheduled to beginFla. Stat. § 255.20(1)
Illinois — school districtsIllinoisschool districtssupplies and materials, and workin excess of $35,000$35,000none stated — but a school board may set a lower threshold by its own policyno adjustment mechanism stated in this section105 ILCS 5/10-20.21
Iowa — governmental entities, public improvementsIowagovernmental entities (cities, counties, school districts and other public bodies)public improvementsone hundred thousand dollars$100,000, or the adjusted threshold published under Iowa Code § 314.1Bnone stated in this sectionadjusted competitive bid threshold established under Iowa Code § 314.1BIowa Code § 26.3(1)
Minnesota — all municipalitiesMinnesotaall municipalities (the Uniform Municipal Contracting Law supersedes inconsistent entity-specific laws)all contracts for the purchase or sale of supplies, materials, equipment, and the construction, alteration, repair or maintenance of real or personal propertyestimated to exceed $175,000$175,000over $25,000 but not over $175,000: sealed bids or direct negotiation on two or more quotations; $25,000 or less: quotation or open marketno adjustment mechanism stated in this sectionMinn. Stat. § 471.345, subd. 3
New York — all political subdivisionsNew Yorkall political subdivisions and districts, including soil conservation districtspublic work (higher figure) and purchase contracts (lower figure)more than thirty-five thousand dollars$35,000 for public work; $20,000 for purchase contractsnone stated in this sectionno adjustment mechanism stated in this sectionN.Y. Gen. Mun. Law § 103(1)
North Carolina — all political subdivisionsNorth Carolinaany board or governing body of the State, of a State institution, or of any political subdivisionconstruction or repair work (higher figure); apparatus, supplies, materials or equipment (lower figure)equal to or more than five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000)$500,000 for construction or repair; $90,000 for apparatus, supplies, materials or equipmentnone stated in this sectionno adjustment mechanism stated in this sectionN.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-129(a)
Ohio — all local governmentsOhioall local governments (counties under ORC 307.86, school districts under ORC 3313.46, cities under ORC 735.05 all reference this single amount)all contracts, purchases, leases and construction under any Revised Code section that references ORC 9.17seventy-five thousand dollars$75,000 base through calendar year 2024, rising 3% each calendar year thereafter (≈$79,568 in 2026)counties must solicit informal estimates from no fewer than three persons between this amount and $125,000 (ORC 307.86)increased 3% each calendar year, as determined and published by the director of commerceOhio Rev. Code § 9.17
Texas — countiesTexascountiespurchases of one or more items under a contractexceeding $100,000$100,000none stated in this sectionno adjustment mechanism stated in this sectionTex. Loc. Gov't Code § 262.023
Texas — municipalitiesTexasmunicipalitiesall contracts requiring an expenditure from municipal fundsmore than $100,000$100,000none stated in this sectionno adjustment mechanism stated in this sectionTex. Loc. Gov't Code § 252.021
Texas — school districtsTexasschool districtsgoods and services, aggregated across a 12-month period; produce and vehicle fuel excepted$100,000 or more in the aggregate for each 12-month period$100,000none stated in this sectionno adjustment mechanism stated in this sectionTex. Educ. Code § 44.031
Virginia — all public bodiesVirginiaall public bodies (state and local)goods and non-professional services, and non-transportation-related construction; transportation-related construction is set separatelynot expected to exceed $200,000$200,000 for goods and non-professional services; $300,000 for non-transportation construction; $25,000 for transportation construction; $80,000 for professional serviceswritten small purchase procedures may be used below these ceilings, but must provide for competition wherever practicableno adjustment mechanism stated in this sectionVa. Code § 2.2-4303(G)
Wisconsin — citiesWisconsincities (board of public works)general public construction (higher figure); public highway construction (lower figure)For general public construction contract bidding, $50,000.$50,000 for general public construction; $25,000 for public highway constructionseparate, lower notice thresholds: $10,000 for general public construction notice, $5,000 for highway construction noticeno adjustment mechanism stated in this sectionWis. Stat. § 62.15(1)(c)

Where this came from

Every record above links the page it was taken from and quotes the sentence that states it. These are the 13 sources this dataset was assembled from.

Machine-readable

From your own code

Same records, same quotes, without scraping the page: refsource is on PyPI and npm. Each value comes back carrying the URL it was read from and the sentence on that page that states it — .source and .quote sit on the value itself rather than in a side channel, so the checking step is available instead of skipped.

pip install refsource
refsource lookup competitive-bid-thresholds-by-state state=California

npx -y refsource lookup competitive-bid-thresholds-by-state state=California

Set your AI assistant up to use this

Two files and no account. Put this in .mcp.json at the root of your project — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code and Codex all read that file — and your assistant can look this dataset up instead of recalling it. The server is remote, keyless and read-only.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "referencesource": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://referencesource.org/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Add to Cursor · or, on the command line: claude mcp add --transport http referencesource https://referencesource.org/mcp --scope project

Then one line in the project's CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md, so the assistant knows when to reach for it:

When a question needs "Competitive bid thresholds for local government by US state — the dollar amount at which a city, county or school district must formally bid, with statutory citations", call the referencesource MCP server at https://referencesource.org/mcp (tool `search_records`, dataset_slug `competitive-bid-thresholds-by-state`) instead of answering from memory — every record it returns carries its source URL and a verbatim quote from that page.

What each tool does, and the servers built over single registers: Connect your AI assistant.

13 records. last verified against source . due for re-check by .

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