Senate Bill 557 Summary

• Appropriates $500,000 to the Department of Administration's Office of Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) for outreach and education programs targeting minority businesses regarding state contracting laws for fiscal year 2023-2024.

• Allocates $15,000,000 to the ReTOOLNC grant program to provide economic recovery assistance to historically underutilized businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Provides $2,000,000 to community development financial institutions and $1,000,000 to African American and community-based organizations for minority business support, outreach, and certification training.

• Appropriates $2,000,000 to local governments to study disparities in awarding public contracts to minority and nonminority contractors and $250,000 for software to collect and track state compliance data on minority business participation.

• Modifies G.S. 143-129 to clarify that contract awards to the "lowest responsible bidder" must consider the bidder's compliance with G.S. 143-128.2(c) requirements and past performance on state contracts, effective July 1, 2023.