[il-talk] the Chicago ordinance giving incentives for disabled-owned businesses

[mgrunwald at sbcglobal.net]

Hello,

TBelow is the text of the Chicago Sun Times article, published January 
eighth, describing the recently-passed ordinence providing incentives to 
those with city contracts and tho hire disabled-owned subcontractors.

Mary Louu

Disabled-owned businesses to get contract advantage
January 8, 2009
BY
FRAN SPIELMAN
 City Hall Reporter
Businesses owned by people with disabilities would get an advantage on city 
contracts,
thanks to a mayoral plan advanced Thursday amid complaints that it may cost 
minorities.
"Now, this majority business - because I've got diabetes and I've otherwise 
been
successful - are able to come in and get credits and participate. That will 
harm
minorities," said Ald. Howard Brookins (21st).
Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) said Mayor Daley would be better off rewarding 
companies
where more than half the employees are people with disabilities. Instead, 
the mayor
has targeted firms owned by people with disabilities.
"You're not going to be helping the disabled. This is all window-dressing," 
Stone
said.
Despite those objections, the City Council's Budget Committee approved the 
latest
in a string of Daley initiatives designed to make Chicago what he calls the 
nation's
"most accessible" city.
It calls for City Hall to offer a sliding scale of incentives that rise with 
the
size of the sub-contract.
If the share for people with disabilities is 2 to 5 percent, the credit 
would be
one half of one percent of the contract's base bid. Six to 10 percent would 
trigger
a 1 percent credit. Eleven percent or more would be 2 percent.
The earned credits would apply to contracts sought by the business for the 
next three
years. It would not apply to the current bid.
The ordinance adds teeth to the special designation for companies owned by 
people
with disabilities created in 2002 to stimulate business opportunities to a 
group
that suffers high unemployment.