Certifications

Select Certification DBE MBE WBE SBE DVBE HUB Section 3 ELBE SLBE

State

Select a State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District Of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

Albany passes bill allowing NYC to bypass competitive bidding for MWBEs

The New York State Legislature passed two bills at the end of it's legislative session aimed at increasing the number of contracts awarded to minority and women-owned businesses (M/WBEs).

The first goes into effect immediately and will allow New York City to do away with the competitive bidding process for contracts worth up to $150,000. Advocates of the law contend that the change will expand the pool of contracts available to M/WBEs.

"This will a game charger for woman and minority's owned business in the City of NY," wrote bill co-sponsor Assemblywoman Marisol Alcantara on Facebook.

Previously, the city could only award informal contracts of up to $20,000 when purchasing goods and up to $35,000 when hiring services.

The other piece of legislation approved by Albany eliminates the state's requirement that M/WBEs have a net worth of less than $3.5 million. Lawmakers claimed that the cap discouraged M/WBEs from growing their businesses and penalized successful M/WBEs by locking them out of the state programs designed to encourage their inclusion in state contracting.