November’s National Entrepreneurship Month is an opportunity for us to reflect on the critical role our entrepreneurs play in making New York the financial, artistic, and entertainment capital of the world. From your local coffee shop owner that helps you get going in the morning to the visionary whose innovative idea creates new economies, the entrepreneur’s spirit is foundational to our local and national culture.
This spirit has long been a key character trait among our city-certified minority- and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs) despite the historical barriers that have traditionally prevented access to tens of billions of dollars in available city contracting opportunities.
As such, three years ago and through an equity lens, we set the ambitious goals of awarding $25 billion in city contracts to M/WBEs by the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 and $60 billion by the end of FY30. These FY 2026 and FY 2030 goals were coupled with two 2023 mayoral executive orders.
Executive Order 26 announced the creation of the first-ever citywide chief business diversity officer and directed agencies to use the M/WBE small purchase method of contracting to its upper limit of $1 million.
Relatedly, Executive Order 34 created the role of agency chief contracting diversity officer to report to their respective agency heads. Moreover, it directed agencies to identify contracting opportunities wherever practicable by re-evaluating M/WBE participation goals on renewal options and de-bundling capital project contracts valued at or more than $25 million to result in potentially more equitable contracting opportunities.
And, we continued to leverage the collective experience of our M/WBE Advisory Council, a 58-person board of accomplished public and private sector leaders, civil rights organizations, and business industry experts who possess a history of advancing M/WBE opportunities, as a critical resource.
As a result, we’re proud to announce that, after achieving back-to-back historic fiscal years spending on and supporting M/WBEs in 2024, we’ve set another record in FY 2025, where city agencies and authorities awarded $6.9 billion in total M/WBE contracts — marking three straight fiscal years of more than $6 billion in spending for M/WBEs, and putting us on pace to achieve our FY 2026 goal by next month, a full six months ahead of schedule.
Under Local Law 1, which governs the city’s M/WBE program, M/WBE utilization rose to 36.4% — representing the highest rate ever in the program’s history and breaking the FY 2024 record by more than 5%. We also set another city record by awarding $2.2 billion in total contracts under Local Law 1, easily surpassing last year’s record of $1.59 billion.
Our historic achievements don’t end there.
In 2023 we partnered with the Legislature and the governor to pass a small handful of laws, which enhanced the tools at our disposal. One of those laws — successfully raising the M/WBE small purchase cap from $1 million to $1.5 million — allowed us to set another FY 2025 record by awarding more than $350 million using that contracting method, effectively doubling the dollar value of contracts we awarded with this method in FY 2023.
Shortly, our Centralized Construction Mentorship Program — another 2023 legislative accomplishment — will be fully operational, providing mentorship, capacity building, access to capital, surety bonding, and, most of all, prime construction contracts up to $5 million.
Additionally, our new M/WBE data tracking and reporting technology solution will soon go live, fundamentally addressing a handful of long-term challenges — having access to near-real time data allowing for more focused policy and programmatic interventions and ensuring that our M/WBE firms get paid on time and per terms of contract.
We have prioritized equity in government contracting and we cannot falter in the commitment we’ve made. That commitment has allowed us to establish our M/WBE program as the most successful program of its kind in the country, responsible for more than $24 billion in contracts since January 2022.
These contracts represent employment opportunities and access to health care, homeownership, better educational outcomes, and sustainable local communities. With the passage of New York state M/WBE laws and public policy, we’re ensuring that communities of color now have a permanent seat at the procurement table.
Garner is the New York City chief business diversity officer, Thompson and Velez are co-chairs of the Mayor’s M/WBE Advisory Council.
