Minority contract spending rises

The state says it spent millions more doing business with minority companies last year.

By ALISA ULFERTS

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 5, 2001

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush claimed another victory for his One Florida plan Tuesday when he announced that the state spent almost $550-million doing business with minority-owned companies last year.

Bush said that's about $165-million more than the state spent the year before and considerably more than it was spending before his administration.

"Each and every day we have worked to expand opportunity" for minority-owned businesses, Bush said.

"The numbers have been significant. Not just the agencies that report to the governor, but across the state," Bush said.

One Florida replaced the state's affirmative action programs for state contracting and university enrollment. Instead of using quotas and set asides, the state actively recruits minority students and businesses.

The plan sparked widespread protests and criticism, and it severely eroded Bush's support among African-Americans, whom Bush courted heavily in 1998.

But with campaign season heating up, Bush has begun touting the successes of the One Florida plan: minority contract numbers are up, and minority student enrollment across the state has remained steady.

Last week, when a federal appeals court struck down the University of Georgia's race-based applications process, Bush responded, "I told you so."

Had the state not forged ahead with One Florida, Bush said, the court's ruling would have pushed Florida into chaos at the beginning of a new academic year.

And today, Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan is scheduled to announce new minority undergraduate numbers at a news conference at the University of South Florida.

"Clearly, Florida understands that minority business is good business," Windell Paige, director of the state's Office of Supplier Diversity, said during Tuesday's news conference.

Florida's increases in minority contracting -- 160 percent in the past two years for agencies that report to Bush -- would not have been possible without "clear commitment from the top," Paige said.

Bush began crafting One Florida in 1999, when California businessman Ward Connerly was pushing a ballot initiative to abolish the state's affirmative action programs. Bush referred to One Florida as a preemptive strike -- saving affirmative action by replacing it with recruiting, financial incentives and guaranteed college admission for the top students of all high schools.

But the program cost Bush when minorities complained, saying he had already made up his mind and then held public hearings that were window dressing.

The complaints continued Tuesday, when Democrats deflected attention away from the minority contract gains and accused Bush of "crippling diversity" at the University of Florida. The state's flagship school has seen a dramatic drop in minority enrollment since One Florida kicked in.

"Jeb Bush is trying to do anything he can to erase the "failure' label from One Florida," Democratic Party chairman Bob Poe said in a statement.

"But no amount of spin can change the fact that Jeb Bush single-handedly erased nearly half the African-American freshman class at the University of Florida," Poe continued.

Bush has dismissed such criticism in the past, saying it has evolved from complaints that minority enrollment would plummet to complaints that it has not skyrocketed.

He said Tuesday that he is counting on the media to help him tell African-American voters about the gains in certified minority contracts.

"Are we satisfied with the numbers? No. I think we can do better," Bush said. Still, he said, things have improved since he took office, when he was "shocked and dismayed" at the scarcity of opportunities for minority-owned businesses.

Bush said he hopes to expand the program to include private loans, backed in some way by the state, to help minority businesses buy the equipment they need for state contracts.

"But I think that will require some legislation," Bush said.

According to his office, white women still account for the biggest share of the minority contract dollars. But Hispanics boosted their contract numbers by 103 percent last year, while Asians increased theirs by 68 percent, African Americans by 40 percent and Native Americans by 25 percent. White women, in contrast, boosted their contract dollars by 23 percent.

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