The Mills administration is seeking an organization to award $300,000 to administer the state’s “social equity program,” a taxpayer-funded affirmative action business development initiative for disproportionately incarcerated, racial, ethnic or tribal populations, according to state contract documents published Friday.
Maine’s state government is now required to provide a social equity program after the passage of LD 1517, a bill first introduced by then-House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) in July 2023.
The bill in its first incarnation was entitled “An Act to Create Equity in the State’s Cannabis Industry,” and was more targeted towards providing business support services to individuals previously convicted of and incarcerated for a cannabis-related crime.
Then-Speaker Talbot Ross revised the bill entirely in March 2024, renaming it “An Act to Establish the Social Equity Program,” and broadened the scope of the bill to direct the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development (MECD) to “increase workforce development programs and provide support to businesses owned by or individuals who are members of impacted communities.”
The more generic category “impacted communities” is defined in the bill, and in state contract documents, as a “racial, ethnic, tribal population that for the duration of the past 50 years has experienced incarceration at rates disproportionate to the population’s rate of criminality.”
The bill states that “impacted communities” have, as a result of disproportionate incarceration rates, “experienced direct or indirect discrimination in access to housing, employment and education.”
The social equity program would focus on providing business development support to members of “impacted communities” through outreach, technical assistance, funding, and education regarding available tax credits.
That program is now going to receive $300,000 in funding from the Mills administration, after MECD finds a contractor to administer the program.
The selected contractor will be responsible for program management, grant fund distribution, and stakeholder collaboration with state agencies and nonprofit organizations.
Approximately half of the social equity program’s funds will be allocated for direct business support in the form of seed grants.
