clipped from www.businessweek.com New York Increases Spending on Minority-Owned Bond Underwriters By Michael Quint March 24 (Bloomberg) -- New York, which plans to sell $5.9 billion of debt in the coming year, increased the share of bond underwriting fees going to minority-owned firms to 28 percent in 2009 from 4 percent two years earlier, according to Paul Williams, chairman of a task force to promote those firms. Governor David Paterson, who signed an executive order to promote the use of minority firms in bond sales after taking office in 2008, said the state wants to broaden minority participation on other spending for professional services. The task force’s policies will lead to the hiring of more minority- and women-owned firms for legal advice, investments and insurance services, said Williams, executive director of the Dormitory Authority, which has issued $22.8 billion of the state’s $60 billion of debt. To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Quint in Albany, New York, at mquint@bloomberg.net.