www.cga.ct.gov/olr
OLRequest@cga.ct.gov
Connecticut General Assembly
Office of Legislative Research
Stephanie A. D’Ambrose, Director
(860) 240-8400
Room 5300
Legislative Office Building
Revenue Caps for Minority-Owned
Small Business Certification
By: Jennifer Proto, Principal Analyst
May 18, 2020 | 2020-R-0096
Issue
Identify states with minority-owned business certifications independent from any revenue criteria.
In addition, identify states with revenue criteria for these certifications that have a higher threshold
than the state of Connecticut.
Summary
According to 2016 research by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), at least 38
states and Washington D.C. have state-level minority business enterprise (MBE) development
programs involving certification for participation in state government procurement independent of
existing federal disadvantaged business enterprise (DBE) development programs. These programs
usually consist of a certification process and a registry of MBEs. They encourage minority business
participation through assistance such as technical training on government contracting and the
bidding process, as well as notification of current bidding opportunities.
Some states have gone a step further with “set-aside” programs where a certain percentage of
government contracting is reserved for minority firms. These set-asides are expressed as goals that
government agencies are either encouraged, or required, to meet. As examples, NCSL identified
five states, including Connecticut, that operate set-aside programs (the other examples were
Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio).