“A lot of this is aspirational,” Ward told the House on Tuesday. “If you don’t have a goal, you will never reach it.”
The House Appropriations Committee approved the legislation on Monday by a 13-8 vote along party lines, following a heated debate in subcommittee last week over whether the goals in the bill represented quotas for state agencies, colleges and universities to meet in awarding contracts to small, minority- and women-owned businesses.
Del. Rob Bloxom, R-Accomack, led opposition to the bill, which he derided as “a quota system” in subcommittee on Friday.
“It’s going to drive the cost of projects up,” Bloxom, who owns a small auto parts store on the Eastern Shore, told the House on Tuesday. “It’s going to slow down the delivery of projects.”
The House advanced the bill to a final vote on Wednesday. If it passes, it would go to the Senate with just three days left to complete work on legislation other than the budget in the special session.
Ball strongly disputed that the legislation would impose quotas on purchases from women- and minority-owned businesses, although he said the 800-page study by BBC Research & Consulting showed the need for the state to consider “race and gender conscious measures, as long as they’re carefully crafted and narrowly drawn.”
