Sponsored by:
Senator NILSA I. CRUZ-PEREZ
District 5 (Camden and Gloucester)
Senator M. TERESA RUIZ
District 29 (Essex and Hudson)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senator McKnight
SYNOPSIS
Establishes Minority and Women-Owned Businesses State Contractor Remedies Act.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act establishing the Minority and Women-Owned Businesses State Contractor Remedies Act; revising various parts of the statutory law and supplementing Title 52 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. (New section) Sections 1 through 4 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) shall be known and may be cited as the Minority and Women-Owned Businesses State Contractor Remedies Act.
2. (New section) The Legislature finds and declares that:
a. In 1985, the Legislature passed the Set-Aside Act for Small Businesses, Female Businesses, and Minority Businesses, P.L.1983, c.482 (C.52:32-17 et seq.), requiring that 15 percent of contracts be awarded to small businesses, seven percent to minority businesses, and three percent to women-owned businesses.
b. In 1989, the United States Supreme Court held in City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. (Croson), 488 U.S. 469 (1989), that the City of Richmonds subcontractor set-aside program for minority businesses violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution because it did not meet the Courts strict scrutiny standard.
c. Following the Croson decision, Governor Kean suspended portions of the Set-Aside Act because the State had not undertaken a thorough investigation confirming the existence of race and gender discrimination in State procurement.
d. In August 1989, Governor Kean issued Executive Order No. 213 establishing the Governors Study Commission on Discrimination in Public Work Procurement and Construction Contracts and directed the Study Commission to investigate the nature and scope of any discriminatory practices and prepare an analysis of this information in order to develop probative evidence of any prior to present discrimination.
e. The Study Commission released the States first disparity study in 1993, with the statistical findings showing a disparity between contract dollars awarded and the availability of minority and women-owned firms available to provide goods and services, and the anecdotal findings showing a history of far-reaching discrimination in which the State passively participated.
f. Governor Florio issued Executive Order No. 84 in 1993 reinstituting the goals in the Set-Aside Act, requiring all State contracting agencies to adopt a set-aside program wherein they would make a good faith effort to award seven percent of public procurement and construction contracts to minority businesses and three percent to women-owned businesses.
g. In 2003, the Set-Aside Act was permanently enjoined in a Consent Decree entered by the federal district court in the matter of GEOD v. State of New Jersey, Civil Action No. 01-2656 (SRC) (D.N.J.), and following entry of the Consent Decree, Governor McGreevey issued Executive Order No. 71 (2003) eliminating set-aside goals for minority and women-owned businesses and instead instituting a race- and gender-neutral small business set-aside program.
h. In 2005, the State released an updated disparity study, and in 2006, Governor Corzine issued Executive Order No. 34, creating the Division of Minority and Women Business Development, tasking it with developing minority and women business utilization goals, based on the 1993 and 2005 disparity studies, and developing and implementing policies and programs aimed at meeting those goals through race-and gender-neutral means.
i. On January 23, 2024, the State released a comprehensive statewide disparity study examining public contracting opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses between 2015 and 2020.
j. Despite decades of a race- and gender-neutral small business set-aside program and other remedial measures, the study found statistically significant disparities in public contracting with minority and women-owned business enterprises including specifically in contracting with businesses owned by Black Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans and women for formal prime contracts in construction, professional services, and goods and services and for informal prime contracts across all industries studied.
k. The State has a compelling interest in promoting markets free of discrimination to engage contractors and subcontractors for State contracts of all types, and thus to promote contracti