White business owners are biggest share of Illinois' diversity-preferred
contract group
[December 29, 2025]
By Jared Strong | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Illinois' initiative to boost the amount of state
contract money it awards to businesses owned by racial minorities and
women continues to struggle despite the tens of millions of dollars the
state has spent.
This month, the number of those businesses that are certified for
preference in state contracting dropped again, extending a 17-month
downward trend.
The state's Commission on Equity and Inclusion has been unable thus far
to reverse the trend that began when it switched to a new computer
software last year. It was meant to streamline the state's certification
process but instead led to a precipitous decline in certifications.
At the time of the switch, there were about 5,050 certified businesses.
That number has dropped to about 2,800, according to a staff report at
the commission's meeting this month.
Moreover, the racial makeup of the certified group has shifted.
According to previous annual reports, Black-owned businesses had long
been the largest share of the group. Now, businesses owned by white
women are.
Increasing the size of the certified group is a primary charge of the
commission, which was formed by state lawmakers in 2022 and given annual
budgets of about $7 million.
Illinois seeks to award at least 30% of its state contract money to
certified businesses, which get selection preference and help to
navigate the contracting process. Critics call the program
discriminatory.
Each of the seven, governor-appointed commissioners who oversee the
efforts are paid about $150,000 annually, and they are allowed to work
other paid jobs. They also have a staff of more than 30 people.
None of the commissioners has responded to requests from The Center
Square for comment about the situation in recent weeks.
Larry Ivory, the president of the Illinois State Black Chamber of
Commerce, implored the commissioners in November to review their
selection process for the software vendor.
He had previously told The Center Square that the computer problem is so
egregious that someone must have chosen the software to deliberately
kneecap the state's diversity efforts.
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The Illinois State Capitol is shown in Springfield. Photo: Greg
Bishop / The Center Square
"I want to make sure that, from a transparency point of view, that
we address those issues in terms of who made the decision, if
this..." he said during a November commission meeting before someone
muted his microphone.
Ivory attended the meeting remotely via videoconferencing software,
and his remarks during a public comment portion of the meeting were
cut short when he exceeded a three-minute limit, even though no one
else from the public was waiting to speak and the meeting was well
short of its two-hour allotment. The meeting adjourned after about
40 minutes.
Commission chairperson Nina Harris did not address Ivory's remarks
about the computer system but admonished him for an unrelated
comment about the state's potential lack of oversight of
discrimination in certain business markets.
"Larry Ivory, you are incorrect," Harris said.
The problem with the new computer software is its inability to
download certification data from the systems of other government
entities, unlike the previous software the commission had used.
It has greatly hampered the commission's certification efforts
because, historically, most of the businesses were directly
certified by another entity, such as the city of Chicago, the state
Department of Transportation and Cook County.
The commission's staff has been scrambling to inform businesses that
they need to seek certification directly with the state, but it's
unclear how successful those efforts have been. The staff intends to
contact businesses directly by telephone next year.
The computer vendor selected was a local minor-owned business.
Jared Strong is an investigative reporter for The
Center Square based in the Midwest. He is a lifelong Iowan who has
worked for news organizations – big and small – for more than 20
years. He and his wife have three children, a small flock of
chickens and an old Case tractor. |
