Monroe County Democrats want to expand the county's existing Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise policy to include veteran-owned businesses and service disabled veteran-owned businesses.
Minority leader Cindy Kaleh says the proposal calls for awarding 3 percent of county contracts to such businesses.
"We have something that costs nothing to do, it is the right thing to do. To create a program that helps businesses get a step up without being onerous to the projects themselves, makes sense," she said.
The state has already passed legislation to create a statewide program to increase opportunities, and now veterans and civilians alike are calling on the program to expand at the county level.
Marine Corps veteran Daniel MacDonald is a partner at Patriot Design and Consulting
He says passing this measure will show that Monroe County is a veteran-friendly place.
"Nobody knows how we feel unless you've walked in our shoes. So, with this kind of bill it will empower veteran owned businesses to create more business, more jobs," he said.
The measure to add veteran and "service disabled" veteran owned businesses to the county's minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise Policy came up before the Monroe County Legislative Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday night.
But Minority Leader Cindy Kaleh (D-Rochester), says it was referred by the committee chair to the Dinolfo Administration. Kaleh says she’s disappointed the measure didn’t move forward, but says she expects work to continue with the legislative majority and the administration in an effort to come to an agreement on the bill.
Here's Dan MacDonald on the importance of having a "veteran friendly" county