David Paterson on Civil Rights Democratic Governor (NY)

Increased MWBE state contract participation from 4% to 24%

To be specific, women--who are 51% of the population and were 29% of the firms that were approved in advance--got 2.6% of the contracts. But it gets worse. Hispanic Americans--8.5% of the threshold vendors, meaning that they had capital, they had been certified, they passed all the tests--received 0.74%, 3/4 of 1%, of the contracts.

I knew to start a Task Force on Minority and Women Business in June 2008. Here are the results. We have quadrupled the MWBE participation. The minority firms that are investment banking and involve the issuance of debt went from 4.2% MWB in 2007 to where they stand now--23.9%. Since I have taken office, minority and women firms have yielded $162 million of profit over where they were at that particular time.

Teach tolerance, including sexual orientation

I call upon all parents to increase their efforts to teac their children respect for all people--no matter their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or national origin. And we must strengthen our school-based curriculum to reinforce the critical message of acceptance and tolerance.

Champion for minority- and women-owned businesses