Issues, Considerations, and Best Practices to Advance Equity in the Contracting of Public Goods and Services

S tate and local governments across the country spend an estimated $2 trillion in goods and services every year. 1 This means that $2 trillion flows from governments to private entities for everything from city services, such as trash pickup and park maintenance, to public health programs, to the purchase of textbooks for students, to the complex technological systems that undergird many public services.