Hue America Insights
THE
(MINORITY)
REPORT
Kansas City's M/WBE Program
No commentary. Just the study's own numbers.
SOURCE: 2026 KANSAS CITY DISPARITY STUDY · FY2016–FY2022
No opinions. Receipts.Prime Contract Dollars, FY2016–FY2022
Every dollar the City paid a prime contractor over seven years.
Black-owned firms took $160.3 million of $5.81 billion: 2.76 cents on the dollar.
Prime contract payments, FY2016–FY2022. Source: 2026 Kansas City Disparity Study, Table 3 (Griffin & Strong).
Share of Prime Dollars
Who the City Paid Directly
Percent of all prime contract dollars, by owner group. The chart scale tops out at 3%.
All five groups combined took 6.56% of the prime dollars.
Black-Owned Firms
Available vs. Actually Used
Share of firms ready to bid, against share of prime dollars won.
6.93%
2.73%
0.34%
0.44%
0.21%
In Professional Services, Black-owned firms were 3.98% of the pool and won 0.34% of the money.
Woman-Owned Firms
Available vs. Actually Used
Same comparison, same seven years.
6.21%
3.03%
0.66%
0.55%
1.91%
Architecture & Engineering has the deepest bench of woman-owned firms, and the widest gap.
Disparity Index
Scored Against a Fair Share
Dollars won divided by firms available. 100 = fair share. Under 80 is the study's discrimination marker.
98
16
19
27
60
Two of the ten scores clear the marker, both in Construction. Everything else falls away.
Where the Money Is
The Biggest Pot Has the Smallest Share
Bar length is total City spend. The colored part is the M/WBE share of it.
Professional Services is the largest pot of money in the City, and the second-smallest M/WBE share of it.
How the Dollars Arrive
Prime vs. Subcontract
Every city dollar reaching a Black-owned firm, by how it got there.
43.8%as the prime contractor
56.2%as somebody's sub
More than half of it lands on a contract somebody else controls.
The Same Program, Two Ways
Counted With Subs, and Without
M/WBE share of city dollars: total utilization vs. prime only.
With subcontracts counted
Prime contracts only
Participation is measured one way. Control is measured the other.
The Available Pool
Who Could Have Bid At All
Every minority- and woman-owned firm available to the City, by industry. Percent of the pool.
In four of five categories, every minority- and woman-owned firm in the market fits inside a fifth of the bar.
Goals vs. No Goals
The Same Firms, Measured Twice
M/WBE share of city contracts, against M/WBE share of private building permits in the same metro.
City contracts: goals apply
of $5.81B in payments
Private permits: no goals
104 of 2,588 permits
Outside the program's property line, the number falls by 76%.
Cash Flow
How Long Firms Wait to Get Paid
Share of surveyed firms reporting each payment window.
Only about one firm in six gets paid inside thirty days.
Survey of Business Owners · 189 Responses
They Already Told the City.
say primes use M/WBE firms only when they're required to
say an informal network decides who gets called
say being outside that network has cost them contracts
were dropped from a bid after the award came in
31.2% faced discrimination in the private market
21.2% faced it from the City itself
These are not estimates. They are answers.
The Outside Record
Cities That Paused Their Programs
Change in minority- and woman-owned participation after suspension.
after
−99%
−97%
Every jurisdiction that swapped goals for good intentions has the same chart.
What Comes Next
The Only Chart Nobody Can Draw
Five bills are filed. Four stop the counting on day one.
NO DATA COLLECTED
Race and gender appear nowhere in the replacement bill: not in certification, not in reporting.
A study ordered in five years would open with nothing to study.
2027 → 2031: next mandated study.
DON'T STOP
COUNTING.
You can't fix what you stop measuring.
Be Heard · Tuesday, August 11
Finance, Governance & Public Safety Committee · 10:30 AM
City Hall, 26th floor · agenda at clerk.kcmo.gov
Written testimony: Public.Testimony@kcmo.org
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