STATE FAILING ON MBE GOALS
BALTIMORE, MD (February 4, 2005) – Mayor O’Malley released the following statement today in response to Governor Ehrlich’s call for an end to Maryland’s Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) program.
I strongly disagree with Governor Ehrlich’s statement that our effort to support minority-owned businesses “needs to end.” Our State is not making progress that we could and should be making toward MBE goals.
Maryland’s diversity is one of our great strengths. We should be seeking ways to empower entrepreneurs in every community, improving the State’s Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) program – rather than talking about ending it with so much unfinished work.
In Baltimore, we have demonstrated that improving the climate for minority-owned firms goes hand in hand with improving the overall business climate. Just yesterday in the Baltimore Sun, University of Baltimore economist Richard Clinch said: “The city has really changed its economic fundamentals,” pointing to job and population growth. “It’s becoming a much more economically viable place.”
This change – along with $7.2 billion in new development and nearly 8,000 more jobs, compared to last year – has come at the same time that we have greatly increased our efforts to work with minority-owned firms.
Since 2000, we have about doubled the amount of business city government does with minority and women-owned firms – from $46 million to $86 million.
This represents nearly 30% of qualifying contracts.
And we’ve made minority equity ownership a priority in development deals that the city supports. This is the way we will increase wealth in the long-term. These projects include the biggest in our city, such as: CenterPoint; Spinnaker Bay; Lockwood Place; and The Zenith
And we’ve been transparent in providing our MBE information to businesses and the public.
To the Governor’s question – “Do you want the legal answer or the political answer?” – I would say we all want an honest answer – that is the same no matter the audience.
This should be a matter for serious thought and discussion. The Governor should focus on improving the State’s MBE program. And he should provide the numbers to the public to demonstrate the State’s progress.