Arkansas Code Title 25. State Government § 25-36-101. Findings--Purpose

(1) To the extent minority-owned businesses are given fair opportunities to compete, all Arkansans benefit;

(2) During 2002, the State of Arkansas spent nine hundred million four hundred thousand dollars ($900,400,000) procuring goods and services;

(3) Although the state possesses more than seven thousand (7,000) minority-owned businesses, less than three-tenths of one percent (0.03%) of state expenditures on goods and services was spent with minority-owned businesses in 2002;

(4) Small and minority-owned businesses employ forty-eight and nine-tenths percent (48.9%) of the state's total employment;

(5) Seventy-two percent (72%) of all current jobs in the Delta Region of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi are provided through small and minority-owned businesses;

(6) An increase of four thousand (4,000) jobs in small, minority-owned, and medium-sized businesses would radiate through the state to result in the creation of forty-eight thousand (48,000) new jobs;

(7) Expanding the profitability and spending power of these businesses will allow them to provide employment opportunities and to increase economic growth and development within Arkansas communities;

(8) Expansion of economic opportunity will reduce unemployment and the need for state-supported social welfare programs, while increasing the state tax base and the appeal to minority-owned businesses from other businesses within their industry for raw materials and production support; and

(9) Increased economic output and employment by minority-owned businesses will have a positive rippling impact throughout the state.