New York Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business Certification

New York certifies Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Businesses through the Office of General Services Division of Service-Disabled Veterans' Business Development, under Article 3 of the Veterans' Services Law. Certification is not a grant or a tax break. What it buys is access to a 6% statewide goal for participation by certified SDVOBs on New York State contracts. Agencies are measured against that goal, which gives a certified firm a concrete reason to be included in a bid and a standing to be considered on set-aside and discretionary purchases. Eligibility has five parts, and all of them are tested. One or more service-disabled veterans with a service-connected disability rating of 10% or more from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or from the New York State Division of Veterans' Affairs in the case of a National Guard veteran, must own at least 51% of the business. Those owners must have and actually exercise the authority to independently control day-to-day business decisions. The business must be independently owned and operated. It must qualify as a small business under the New York program. And it must have a significant business presence in New York State. The control requirement is where applications most often fail. Fifty-one percent on paper is not enough if someone else runs the company, and the Division looks at who signs contracts, who hires, and who sets strategy. The 10% rating floor is low by the standards of the other benefits in this catalog, so a veteran with a modest rating who owns a business should look at this even if they have written off most rating-gated programs. Apply through the OGS Division of Service-Disabled Veterans' Business Development. Certification is a prerequisite to being counted toward the goal, so a firm bidding without it gets no credit no matter who owns it.