Gov. Andrew Cuomo remains committed to giving women and minority-owned businesses their chance to earn billions of dollars in state contracts. That was a message shared in Western New York Wednesday morning by Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who took part in a roundtable discussion at the Amherst Chamber of Commerce.Meeting with Hochul were representatives from the University at Buffalo, Buffalo State College, Amherst Chamber of Commerce and numerous private companies from sectors including development and health care.
Following the closed-door meeting, Hochul told reporters of the Cuomo Administration's commitment to getting businesses owned by women and minorities more involved, through the Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise initiative.
Through the MWBE, Hochul explained, businesses owned by women and minorities have the opportunity to learn how to get started and get working.
"A lot of them are startups, and they don't know where to go, so the governor has started a mentoring program," she said. "He has a bonding program. He has a venture capital program. He has identified all the barriers to people starting small businesses and broken right through them."
Hochul also pointed out how Cuomo has increased quotas on state projects, now requiring more than 20 percent participation by businesses owned by women and minorities.
"That equates to about $2 billion which will be available in state contracts to women- and minority-owned businesses, because the governor believes we have to have more diversity in our workforce," Hochul said.
She added that there remain plenty of opportunities for such businesses to be a part of Buffalo's economic renaissance.
"There's opportunity for women and minority-owned businesses to get a piece of the pie as more development comes to downtown Buffalo as a result of the Buffalo Billion,"Hochul said. "[There's] the explosion of growth with the Buffalo-Niagara Medical Campus, what's happening in downtown Buffalo with the HarborCenter, what's happening over where Solar City is going to be coming."
"There are opportunities that were never there in my entire lifetime. We want everyone to have a piece of that because it elevates the entire community."
