BOSTON, MA — The Baker-Polito Administration recently filed legislation, An Act to Expand Opportunities for Minority and Women Business Enterprises in Public Construction Projects, and announced a series of administrative changes to promote greater participation of minority- and women-owned businesses in public construction, including small businesses. These changes will help optimize and improve the Affirmative Marketing Program (AMP), which sets goals for participation by minority-owned businesses (MBEs) and women-owned businesses (WBEs) in design and construction for the state and municipalities with vertical construction.

“We are committed to increasing opportunities for minorities and women across Massachusetts and strengthening the relationship between the Commonwealth and its diverse business community,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “These improvements to the Commonwealth’s Affirmative Marketing Program represent the most significant construction reform since the program began and will lead to a more inclusive economy.”

“Our administration is pleased to continue empowering and supporting women-owned businesses and minority-owned businesses throughout Massachusetts,” said Lt. Governor Karyn Polito. “By increasing the goals for participation by women and minority businesses in state contracts, reducing burdens and costs on smaller contractors, and expanding access to more public projects, we can promote increased participation and greater inclusion for all businesses.”

This legislation will help afford new opportunities to MBEs and WBEs in two ways. First, it proposes an increase in the dollar thresholds over which public entities are required to subcontract and bid out specific components of a project. Currently, bids for most subcontracted work over $25,000 are subject to a filed sub-bid requirement, a process that requires interested subcontractors to comply with certification, bonding, and other requirements, and to submit bids to the awarding authority. These requirements can discourage smaller MBEs and WBEs from participating in public building projects due to the administrative burden and cost. This proposal would increase the thresholds governing when filed sub-bids would be required, to instead only require them when the subcontracted work costs more than $50,000 and the overall project cost exceeds $1 million.

Second, the legislation expands opportunities for MBEs and WBEs on Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) and other public projects in areas where they have not been readily available. Currently, over 50 percent of public building work is subcontracted out by means of filed sub-bids, yet these sub-bids are not subject to MBE and WBE participation goals. The legislation will allow DCAMM to set MBE and WBE participation goals for this subcontracted work on projects over $5 million.

The administrative changes involve DCAMM splitting the AMP goals for the percentage of spending distributed to MBEs and WBEs so that there are distinct participation requirements for both groups and ensures participation by both MBE and WBE firms. Additionally, the combined annual participation goals will be increased from 10.4 percent to 13 percent in the construction phase, and from 17.9 percent to 21.6 percent in the design phase. These changes will also allow for the establishment of project-specific AMP goals. This enables participation goals for an individual project to be specifically tailored to it prior to procurement, and ensures that goals accurately reflect the availability of contractors and other factors.