I was referring to the Wicks' Law. Apparently, they just recently amended it a couple months ago...for the worse for upstate.

I should have written that this is only for public contracts, not private contracts. Sorry about that.

They law mandates that all contractual work for a job is split, which presented a burden to general contractors who could not subcontract out to others. This meant that only larger companies (which are naturally unionized) could do the job.

Here's more explanation: http://buffalonews.typepad.com/strictlybusiness/2008/05/who-benefits-fr.html

The new law lifts the ceiling considerably off of $50,000 by a factor of 10, but then a new additional mandate was put in. Only companies with apprenticeship programs could bid, which is effectively the same obstructive mandate as the prior Wicks law since again--small non-union contractors don't have apprenticeship programs.

I'm all for unions, but the fact is, this law makes sense in New York City where even an ordinary construction job will run into the millions. Upstate, this is too big of a burden.