§ 25-36-101 — Findings - Purpose

(a) The General Assembly finds: (1) To the extent minority-owned businesses are given fair opportunities to compete, all Arkansans benefit; (2) During 2002, the State of Arkansas spent nine hundred million four hundred thousand dollars ($900,400,000) procuring goods and services; (3) Although the state possesses more than seven thousand (7,000) minority-owned businesses, less than three-tenths of one percent (0.03%) of state expenditures on goods and services was spent with minority-owned businesses in 2002; (4) Small and minority-owned businesses employ forty-eight and nine-tenths percent (48.9%) of the state's total employment; (5) Seventy-two percent (72%) of all current jobs in the Delta Region of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi are provided through small and minority-owned businesses; (6) An increase of four thousand (4,000) jobs in small, minority-owned, and medium-sized businesses would radiate through the state to result in the creation of forty-eight thousand (48,000) new jobs; (7) Expanding the profitability and spending power of these businesses will allow them to provide employment opportunities and to increase economic growth and development within Arkansas communities; (8) Expansion of economic opportunity will reduce unemployment and the need for state-supported social welfare programs, while increasing the state tax base and the appeal to minority-owned businesses from other businesses within their industry for raw materials and production support; and (9) Increased economic output and employment by minority-owned businesses will have a positive rippling impact throughout the state. (b) This chapter is intended to expand economic opportunities for Arkansas' minority communities but is not intended to establish any quota system or program.

Legislative History

Acts 2003, No. 1814, § 1.