The Negative Economic Consequences for Everyone of Affirmative Action

I see the economic consequences of affirmative action as generally negative for everyone. Very few people benefit economically from affirmative action. The few who do are overwhelmingly white, and they are usually the wealthy and special friends of contractors, purchasing agents, and politicians. These facts are becoming obvious, and so, I think, are the actions of those accountable locally for how taxpayer dollars are spent. The story below comes from Ashville, Tennessee’s local newspaper.

It is evidence of the beginning of the end. It is also evidence that the MCRI is based on societal evolution. There is give and take as ideas are tried and discarded after a while when they don't work. The vehemence of the anti-MCRI forces comes from a deep, and correct, appreciation by them that the party's over. They have to move out of the house and get a job on their own.

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Wednesday, 09/20/06
Airport may stop minority contracts program

By JANELL ROSS
Staff Writer


The Nashville Airport Authority, jittery about mounting court rulings that have curtailed other contractor diversity programs, may vote today to suspend a program that has helped female- and minority-owned businesses get millions of dollars in local airport contracts since 2002.
The vote will push Nashville into a long-simmering national debate about race, gender and access to public contracts just as the airport board is scheduled to sign off on a $37 million terminal renovation contract crucial to the facility's future.






"It disturbs me that they would undertake these steps," said Marilyn Robinson, executive director of the Nashville Minority Business Center, a group dedicated to minority business growth. "If someone challenges you in court, so what, you face that. But you don't dismantle a program for fear of what someone might do."
The authority will consider temporarily suspending a program that has set annual goals for small, minority-owned and female-owned businesses to get a share of airport business. Last year, the goal was 6.29 percent of contracts awarded, and airport officials said the final numbers came in closer to 20 percent.
Last year, that program resulted in $1.5 million of $7.9 million in airport contracts funded locally going to the targeted categories. Airport officials said female-owned firms saw the biggest gains.
Under the airport's program, contractors on local projects have been encouraged — though not required — to use small, female- and minority-owned firms to help them complete portions of construction, renovation or service contracts. Small, minority- and female-owned firms also have been encouraged to bid directly.
But such initiatives have been under attack from the white, male-dominated construction industry in the courts for the better part of two decades, and airport officials say they have been worried about being caught up in similar legal challenges here since at least last summer.
"This issue — the debate about whether contracts financed with tax dollars paid by all ought to support the business ventures of all — isn't new," said Anthony W. Robinson, president of the Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense Fund. The Washington, D.C.-based organization is supported by foundations and mostly minority-owned firms.
"It has only increased in intensity … as the country has become more politically conservative. Then the (U.S.) Supreme Court started agreeing with this concept of reverse discrimination. It's got traction," said Robinson, who is not related to Marilyn Robinson.
Federal court cases from Washington State, Houston, Richmond, Va., and numerous other venues have thrown out or forced changes in contractor diversity quotas or goals by state or city governments since the late 1980s.
In the scramble that has followed, many cities, states and other government agencies have modified their programs.
Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority President Raul Regalado declined to comment about the potential change coming up for discussion at today's meeting.
News that the authority is about to consider a nine-month suspension of the goals associated with its diversity in contracting program is just beginning to filter outside of the organization.
"I can't say I had heard anything about that," said Bill Young, executive vice president of the Tennessee Associated General Contractors, which represents major construction firms.
But Young said he thinks most contractors would hire minority- and female-owned firms for some work anyway, even though he said it's a headache to find them because so few are qualified, licensed or adequately bonded. Still, he thinks some of the firms would get jobs because of the demand for labor.
"I am not so sure it's going to matter. In this market, there is so much work (large construction companies) are just looking for somebody, anybody who is qualified to help them do the job," he said.
Also on today's airport agenda, the authority will decide whether to accept Brentwood-based Ray Bell Construction's low bid of $36.7 million for the upcoming terminal renovation.
Keith Pyle, president of Ray Bell, said his firm would voluntarily use some small, female- and minority-owned firms on the job.
Minority contracting goals, but not mandates, also exist in Metro and state governments, and play a role in how contractors' bids are evaluated by agencies letting work.
At the airport, though, efforts to document how the authority's diversity contracting program has operated beyond the most recent fiscal year have been difficult.
Information on the diversity contract award program was not collected during fiscal 2003, said Michelle Tatom, the airport authority's manager of minority affairs and contract compliance.
She was hired last year.
Tatom said program performance has been "relatively strong," but she couldn't immediately provide data for fiscal 2004 or 2005.
The policy up for a vote today would eliminate numeric goals for the rest of this fiscal year and set up a test of who gets how much money in the absence of the rules. If there's a significant drop in contracts for women, minorities and smaller firms, the old program could be revived, Tatom said.
"We will have to see what the data show," Tatom said.
Some contractors who have gotten work under government initiatives say goals can help firms starting out.
Wayne Ammond, vice president of operations at female-owned Mark IV Enterprises, said public contracts are an important stream of work to new companies and those without contacts.
"When you are just starting out," Ammond said, "government contracts, that's definitely one way into the marketplace. But they aren't easy to get." •

My colleague, Diane Carey, adds: "What does 'encouraged but not required' mean? Sounds to me like the thugs at the doors of shops saying, 'You're going to need protection and we gently suggest that you pay us for it.'"