Veterans (Small Business)

Enacts the lift our communities advertise locally (LOCAL) program which provides a tax credit on advertising for locally owned minority-owned and women-owned business enterprises, certified service-disabled veteran-owned business enterprises or a small business.

This bill creates a state-funded program to provide grants for business training and support. It directly helps small business owners - especially New York State-certified minority/women-owned businesses (minimum 20%) and military veterans (minimum 10%) - by requiring applicants to submit a business plan to receive funding. The program allocates $5 million to large cities (population ≥1 million) and $500,000 to smaller cities/towns, using most of the funds to award $10,000 grants to successful program graduates after training. The Empire State Development Corporation administers the program and sets competitive criteria for grant awards.

Increases the discretionary buying threshold for state agencies purchasing commodities from small business concerns, certified minority and women-owned businesses and certified veteran companies.