A California businessman is leading an effort in Missouri, titled Missouri 009, to end goals in awarding government contracts to minority and women entrepreneurs. He is attempting to get enough signatures on this petition to enable it to be placed on the ballot in November. If passed, the initiative will overturn a 2005 executive order by Gov. Matt Blunt that sets goals to award 10 percent of state agencies’ contracted work to minority businesses and 5 percent to women-owned companies.

When someone approaches you to sign this petition and says "This stops discrimination," make sure you realize this is NOT the case at all. Affirmative action programs boost minority and women employment, and help under-represented entrepreneurs get a fair chance at work.

Both the St. Louis Review and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch have come out against this initiative. This initiative is not good for St. Louis; it is not good for Missouri.