The urgency of the current economic situation means state agencies must re-examine the way they do business, particularly with respect to in-house versus outsourced design work. Conventional wisdom has long favored the cost-effectiveness of private-sector design of public projects. Private-sector design professionals are more efficient. A recent report by Polytechnic Institute of New York University pegs the cost differential between public and private designers at about 14% and substantiates the claim that New York state can achieve significant cost savings by using private-sector engineers. SIMSON Performed at the request of the American Council of Engineering Cos. of New York, the

Recovery from natural and man-made disasters is often assigned in part to engineers, who we expect to answer the call to fix the problem. Knowing the inevitability of periodic catastrophes, the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York (ACEC New York) strongly supports emergency responder legislation to prevent future misguided lawsuits against engineering firms for on-site conditions that are entirely outside their assigned responsibility. Unlike Good Samaritan Laws, which protect only unpaid volunteers from liability for work performed during state or national disasters, emergency responder legislation would provide design firms immunity from lawsuits that attempt to make engineers responsible