ARTICLE
While the NYS Legislature continues to toil away at the budget, we can report that the Transportation, Economic Development and Environmental Conservation (TED) bill which we have been following closely, has passed both the Assembly and Senate. After a lot of meetings and shoe leather left on the floors of the Capitol by ECA staff representing the views of our membership, we are happy to let you know that the section of TED that contained language to greatly expand the MWBE program was pulled from the final bill. This means that the current standards stay (set to sunset Dec. 2018) and any changes would have to be legislated outside of the budget process. We still need to wait for the whole budget process to finish, as the revenue bill, which tends to contain a lot of non-budget and last-minute items (which is why it's also known as "the Big Ugly"), still has to make its way to the floor. ECA continues to endorse the following proposals for the improvement and continuation of New York State's MWBE Program: • Amend the present version of Executive Law Article 15A only to extend provisions presently sunsetting in December 2018 to December 31, 2019 to permit the procurement of a disparity study compliant with the standards of Croson and other Constitutional standards and provide an appropriation of $2 million for the conduct of said study; • Clarify that contract-specific goal setting analyses required by law and regulation must be available pre-bid and included in project specifications. • Provide appropriation of $2 million for the re-establishment of the Alliance of Majority & Minority Contractors Mentor Program to grow and develop MWBE capacity statewide. Once the budget process has finished, we will continue to hold conversations with legislative members about this important issue. We will keep you posted on any changes that may occur and, as always, contact Todd (518-869-0961 / toddh@ecainc.org) if you have any questions or concerns.