Minority Set-Asides Face Uncertain Future

Possible issue for 2008 elections

By Glenn Townes
www.blackenterprise.com

May 1, 2007-- Set-aside programs face enormous obstacles in the coming months as anti-affirmative action proponent Ward Connerly is on a national campaign to get all government set-aside programs-in higher education and business contract letting-repealed.

Following successes in California-Proposition 209 in 1996, the state of Washington's Initiative 200 and the controversial Proposition 2 in Michigan-set-aside programs face a tenuous future, say some minority and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs)-due in large part to the unabated efforts of the California tycoon. Connerly and his supporters are calling for a greater emphasis on social programs and lambaste set-asides as being too expensive and burdensome to the entire federal procurement process.

However, Michael Jones-Bey, the newly appointed director of the division of minority & women's business development for the state of New York, says his office is actively spearheading Lt. Gov. David Patterson's campaign to bring M/WBEs back into New York state's vendor database. Jones-Bey says Connerly and his cohorts are misguided and uninformed.

"It's racist to assume that minority businesses are unqualified firms and driving up costs," he says. "The question should be why are majority firms getting 90 percent of the contracts and minority firms getting less than 10 percent." Jones-Bey criticized the former Governor of New York, George Pataki and his administration, for doing little to foster minority entrepreneurship in the state and protect state set-aside initiatives.

"The {George} Pataki administration was unsupportive and hostile toward set-asides," he says. Some supporters of set-asides say the programs should be a temporary reprieve for minority-owned small businesses and not a permanent endeavor.

Lash Green, general manager for small business programs at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, contends that while set-asides are vital for the time being, they should encourage M/WBEs to eventually become self-sufficient.

"I don't think we should have set-asides forever," Green says. "Minority business owners should strive to become stand alone firms that can effectively compete for and win bids." Green says The Port sets aside nearly 50 contracts annually for M/WBEs.

Finally, in what some may consider a cryptic precursor of things to come, Connerly says he is planning to have anti-affirmative action measures on several state ballots in time for the November 2008 elections.