BILL NUMBER: S7205

SPONSOR: RHOADS
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the executive law, in relation to reciprocal minority
and women-owned business enterprise certification

 
PURPOSE:

Relates to reciprocity between the state and the counties for businesses
that are certified as minority and women-owned business enterprises.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1. Subdivision 2-a of section 314 of the executive law is
amended by adding a new paragraph (d) to read as follows: (d) Notwith-
standing any other provisions of law, the director and any county,
acting though its county executive, may enter into a memorandum of
understanding setting forth a procedure through which:  (i) such county
shall accept an applicant's state certification verification in lieu of
requiring such applicant to complete such county's process for certif-
              

ication as a minority or women-owned business enterprise program;
and(ii)the office shall accept an applicants' county certification
verification in lieu of requiring an applicant to complete the process
for certification as a minority or women-owned business enterprise with
the State of New York.

§ 2. This act shall take effect on the two hundred seventeenth day after
it shall have become law.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

This bill increases access for minority and women owned businesses
(MWBEs) to receive their certification verification. The Division of
Minority and Women's Business Development (DMWBD) advocates for equality
of economic opportunities MWBEs and for the elimination of barriers to
their participation in state contracts. This includes the preparation
and annual updating of a directory of certified MWBEs which allows for
contractors to see all MWBEs certifications, categories, and locations.
This allows contractors to more easily find MWBEs when searching for
business to contract out to. To become a certified MWBE and therefore be
found in this directory, a business must meet a certain set of guide-
lines and become verified.

There are different verification processes for different levels of
government. Current law allows for reciprocity between municipal corpo-
rations and the state in terms of becoming a certified minority and
women-owned business. Current law also allows for reciprocity between
the federal certification process and the state certification process.
This law would expand this by allowing for a memorandum of understanding
between DMWBD and county executives to allow counties to accept an
applicant's state certification verification in lieu of requiring such
applicants to complete such county's process for certification, and for
the state to accept an applicant's county certification verification in
lieu of requiring such applicants to complete such state's process for
certification. Allowing for this additional reciprocity on the county
level will remove unnecessary time and administrative barrier for busi-

ness who are already verified as MWBEs utilizing the same set of
requirements.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the two hundred seventieth day after it
shall have become law.