MPN Fact Check: Minority Businesses in Missouri

Today Gov. Matt Blunt's press shop issued a release citing figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency. Those figures lend themselves to another issue of MPN's Fact Check series.

Claim: In a Labor Day press release, Blunt's press team writes "According to the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency there are 29,696 minority firms in Missouri, which have gross receipts of $4.2 billion and employ more than 39,000 employees." The quote is immediately followed by the usual tidbit of what Blunt has done since 2005, but there's at least one major problem...

Fact: The figures Blunt cites are from 2002, three years before Blunt even assumed office. Granted more recent estimates are not yet available, Blunt seems to use the numbers to bolster the case that his administration has not only been a resounding success but that his administration actually had something to do with improving minority business establishments in the state.

At best the Blunt press team made an inadvertent error in omitting the date for the data; but at worst it was a calculated, deliberate action intended to mislead the press and constituents. Our guess, sadly, is that latter is true.

Fact: Blunt's press release also omits the more telling statistic from the document it cites - that just 5 percent of all Missouri firms are minority-owned. That's despite the 26.1 percent of Missourians who fall into an ethnic minority status, according to the US Census Bureau. Consideration of business ownership along with demographics reveals Missouri's minorities still have a long way to go before real equality in business ownership is achieved.

Related Links:
Blunt press release
DOC MBDA Missouri Profile

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