Develops a comprehensive plan and operational guidelines to promote veteran-owned business enterprises

Section 5 - Requires OGS to conduct a study to determine the percentage of contracts to be set-aside for both service-disabled veterans and non-service-disabled veterans.

Section 6 - Requires that OGS complete the study required by section 5 within one-hundred eighty calendar days of this bill's enactment into law

Section 7 - Effective date

Justification

New York State is home to more than 900,000 veterans. Of those, approximately 600,000 are combat veterans. Additionally, about 88,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan reside in New York State.

In 2014, New York passed legislation to reserve 6% of state contracts for service-disabled veterans. This legislation has been very beneficial to a small percentage of the population of those who have served our state and our country. Now, it is time to expand business opportunities for all of our veteran-owned businesses, many of which employ their brethren veterans because of the excellent training and skills they have.

As of 2014, there were approximately 106,000 service-disabled veterans living in New York State. This represents 11.77% of the total population of veterans living in New York State. In other words, there is an additional 88.33% of the population of veterans in New York who are not eligible for additional business opportunities afforded under current law. This legislation would seek to rectify this situation by expanding the benefits of Article 17-B of the Executive Law, the Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Business Act, to all of our State's veteran-owned businesses and therefore, as mentioned above, all of our veterans.

A survey conducted in 2015 illustrates just how dire the circumstances are for New York's veterans. Though New York was ranked first in the country in the number of Veterans' Affairs facilities per 10,000 veterans, the state also ranked 47th in the nation in number of veteran-owned businesses. Providing assistance with the procurement of state contracts is the catalyst needed to increase sales for the many New York businesses presently owned by veterans. This will allow them to be more prosperous as well as grow the number of veteran-owned businesses statewide.

Presently, Arkansas, Illinois, and Michigan reserve 5% of all state contracts for veteran owned businesses independent of whether they are service-disabled veteran businesses or not. Likewise, the federal government offers similar opportunities to all veterans through the Small Business Administration. It is time for New York State to recognize that all veteran-owned businesses should be entitled to the set-aside for the procurement of State contracts. This recognition will spur the growth and longevity of veteran-owned businesses while providing jobs for even more of our veterans. Helping New York State's Veterans to be prosperous is the least we can do for those who previously removed themselves from the business world and the job market to protect our freedoms.

Section 5 of this legislation requires the Office of General Services to conduct a study to determine the appropriate amount of contracts to be set aside for both service-disabled veteran-owned businesses and non-service-disabled veteran-owned businesses. The goal of this study is to ensure that the amount of contracts presently reserved for service-disabled veteran-owned businesses under existing law will not be impacted by this legislation. This bill requires that such study shall be completed within one-hundred eighty calendar days following its enactment into law.

Legislative history

New Bill.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

Immediately.