Julie Irvin Hartman started her Tuesday with welcome, but confusing news.

The application she had submitted weeks ago to renew her business’s certification as a Historically Underutilized Business had been approved, despite acting state Comptroller Kelly Hancock’s late October announcement that he was freezing the program intended to give businesses owned by women, minorities and disabled veterans a boost when seeking state government contracts.

But hours later, the comptroller’s office emailed Hartman again, notifying her and more than 15,000 other small businesses — nearly 97% of the certified HUB businesses in Texas — that they were being removed from the HUB program entirely.

Then her phone notifications exploded.

The owner of Tomball-based B2G Victory, Hartman has built her busine

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