Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is working with state lawmakers to increase state contracting opportunities for companies owned by women and people in racial and ethnic minority groups.
Northam has sponsored a substitute to House Bill 1784 that would set a goal for the state to spend 23.1% of its discretionary spending with the woman- and minority-owned companies, he said in a statement Friday. It would also set a goal of 42% for the larger state category of businesses certified as small, woman- or minority-owned.
The governor’s announcement came as he released the results of a contracting disparity study, which showed that even though woman- and minority-owned firms in Virginia have the capacity to rake in more than 32% of state contracting dollars, they are only receiving 13.4% of the total. (That’s up from 2.8% in 2011, the last time the disparity study was completed.)
At Virginia’s public universities, woman- and minority-owned firms were capable of providing a similar amount of the work — 30% — but only received 11% of contracts at mid-level institutions and 8% at Tier III, which include the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech, among other large institutions, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch report.
