The proposed bill establishes the Minority and Women-Owned Businesses State Contractor Remedies Act, which aims to improve the participation of minority and women-owned businesses in state contracting. It requires state agencies to develop annual plans that encourage these businesses to submit proposals and sets specific contract utilization goals based on the New Jersey Disparity Study. Agencies must make a good faith effort to meet these goals, which include percentages for various categories of businesses, and if they fail to do so, they must submit a remedial action plan. The Chief Diversity Officer is designated to oversee compliance and enforce accountability, including holding prime contractors responsible for meeting subcontracting goals.

Additionally, the bill amends the Set-Aside Act for Small Businesses, Female Businesses, and Minority Businesses by focusing solely on small businesses and increasing the set-aside goal from 15% to 25%. It removes specific references to female and minority-owned businesses, consolidating the focus on small businesses while establishing a new goal for state agencies to award at least 30% of contracts to socially and economically disadvantaged businesses. The responsibilities for oversight are shifted from the Office of Small Business Assistance to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Department of the Treasury, and previous laws related to compliance calculations for minority and women-owned businesses are repealed.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 5:10-21.1, 52:32-17, 52:32-18, 52:32-19, 52:32-20, 52:32-21, 52:32-22, 52:32-23, 52:32-24, 52:32-25, 52:32-26, 52:32-27, 52:32-28, 52:32-30, 52:32-31.17