For purposes of this act:

1. "Disadvantaged business" means a business employing less than twenty-five persons of which at least fifty-one percent (51%) of the outstanding stock is owned, regardless of minority status, by a person who is:

a.by reason of social or economic background unable to compete in the free enterprise system due to diminished capital and credit opportunities of a quality or quantity similar to those available to others in the same business area who are not disadvantaged, and

b.impeded from normal entry into the economic mainstream because of historical practices of discrimination based on race, color, religion, ethnic background, sex, age, handicap, national origin, or service in the armed forces during the Vietnam conflict, and

c.unable to compete effectively because of tendencies of regular financing and commercial organizations to restrict their services to established businesses, and

d.in a state of low income;

2. "Low income" means annual income which is eighty percent (80%) or less of the median annual income of the citizens of this state as reported by the latest estimates of the U.S. Bureau of the Census;

3. "Minority business" means a business employing less than twenty-five persons which is fifty-one percent (51%) owned and operated by one or more minority persons; and

4. "Minority person" means a citizen of the United States who is Black, Hispanic, Oriental, American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, or handicapped.

Added by Laws 1987, c. 148, § 2, eff. July 1, 1987.