Terms Used In New York Laws > State Finance > Article 11 - State Purchasing

• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Centralized contract: means any contract for the purchase of commodities or services, established or approved by the commissioner of general services as meeting the state's requirements including, but not limited to, any contract let by the federal government, other state or local governments or purchasing consortia. See N.Y. State Finance Law 160
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of general services. See N.Y. State Finance Law 160
• commodities: means material goods, supplies, products, construction items, electronic information resources or other standard articles of commerce which are the subject of any purchase or other exchange. See N.Y. State Finance Law 160
• Construction item: means any item or material used in construction and which is procured directly by a state agency or by a person other than a municipality under contract with a state agency. See N.Y. State Finance Law 160
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Costs: as used in this article shall be quantifiable and may include, without limitation, the price of the given good or service being purchased; the administrative, training, storage, maintenance or other overhead associated with a given good or service; the value of warranties, delivery schedules, financing costs and foregone opportunity costs associated with a given good or service; and the life span and associated life cycle costs of the given good or service being purchased. See N.Y. State Finance Law 160
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Minority leader: See Floor Leaders
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Ranking minority member: The highest ranking (and usually longest serving) minority member of a committee or subcommittee.
• services: means the performance of a task or tasks and may include a material good or a quantity of material goods, and which is the subject of any purchase or other exchange. See N.Y. State Finance Law 160
• small business: means a business which is resident in this state, independently owned and operated, not dominant in its field and employs one hundred or less persons. See N.Y. State Finance Law 160
• state agencies: means all state departments, boards, commissions, offices or institutions but excludes, however, for the purposes of subdivision five of § 355 of the education law, the state university of New York and excludes, for the purposes of subdivision a of § 6218 of the education law, the city university of New York; provided, however, that the state university of New York and the city university of New York shall be subject to the provisions of section one hundred sixty-five-a of this article. See N.Y. State Finance Law 160
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Technology: means either a good or a service or a combination thereof, used in the application of any computer or electronic information or interconnected system that is used in the acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of data or voice including, but not limited to, hardware, software, information appliances, firmware, programs, systems, networks, infrastructure, media, and related material used to automatically and electronically collect, receive, access, transmit, display, store, record, retrieve, analyze, evaluate, process, classify, manipulate, manage, assimilate, control, communicate, exchange, convert, coverage, interface, switch, or disseminate data of any kind or form, and shall include all associated consulting, management, facilities, maintenance and training. See N.Y. State Finance Law 160
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}