Public purchasing; increase threshold for purchases without competitive bidding.

HB 680 would have raised Mississippi's threshold for requiring competitive bidding on public purchases from $5,000 to $15,000. This change would allow state agencies, counties, schools, and local governments to make purchases under $15,000 without competitive bids, though they could still choose to use them. For purchases between $15,000 and $75,000, the bill required at least two competitive written bids but permitted accepting the lowest bid without public advertising. Purchases over $75,000 would still require standard competitive bidding with newspaper notices and reverse auctions as the primary method.