NC Economy Booms Despite Bathroom-Bill Boycott

Kerry Lear

9 years ago

Although North Carolina was &ldquo&semi;punished&rdquo&semi; by multiple organizations in defiance of its bathroom bill, the state&rsquo&semi;s economy is thriving&period;&NewLine;The NBA All-Star Game, the NCAA championships, and even Bruce Springsteen decided to change the venues of their events from being in NC as a response to the heavily contested transgender bathroom law&period;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;Those who argued that the bill would hurt the state&rsquo&semi;s economy were evidently wrong&period;&NewLine;North Carolina Lieutenant Gov&period; Dan Forest&nbsp&semi;said this month that the boycott impacted &ldquo&semi;less than one-tenth of 1 percent&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;of its annual GDP&period;&NewLine;The NC tourism industry had a successful 2016&period; The high demand for rooms, increased room rates, according to a recent report by VisitNC, which is part of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;Room rates jumped by 3&period;6&percnt; in 2016 compared to the year before&period;&NewLine;Even though PayPal decided to cancel its expansion into the state by calling off plans to open a new global operations center in NC, other companies were not detoured by the House Bill 2&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;North Carolina ranked fourth in the country for attracting new business&period; 289 new major projects were in the works in 2016, making the state seventh (same placement as 2015) in projects per capita&ndash&semi; according to Site Selection magazine&period;&NewLine;Then back in November, NC was named No&period; 2 in the nation for business culture by Forbes and Site Selection magazine&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;Also unscathed was the state&rsquo&semi;s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, which registered at 5&period;3 percent in January 2016 and 5&period;3 percent in January 2017, according to the U&period;S&period; Bureau of Labor Statistics,&rdquo&semi; writes The Washington Times&period;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;The figures released almost exactly a year after the bill&rsquo&semi;s passage appear to fly in the face of predictions of economic doom made by opponents of HB2&period; The Center for American Progress estimated in April that the state would lose more than &dollar;567 million in private-sector economic activity through 2018&period;&rdquo&semi;&NewLine;Although these numbers prove that the state&rsquo&semi;s economy is booming, Chris Sgro, former Democratic state legislator and LGBT rights leader, argues that these numbers would have been much more impressive without the bathroom bill in place&period;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;It is a universally agreed-upon fact at this point that HB2 is hurting the state of North Carolina economically,&rdquo&semi; said Sgro&period;&NewLine;Gov&period; Roy Cooper expressed similar sentiments&period;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;We have vibrant cities like where I live in Greensboro with innovative leaders like my mayor that are going to continue to work to attract, recruit and retain business,&rdquo&semi; said Cooper&period; &ldquo&semi;At the same time, it is incredibly clear to everybody that HB2 has done a detriment to the state of North Carolina&period; We would be doing drastically better economically if this discriminatory law wasn&rsquo&semi;t on the books&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;But again, the economic impact has been proven to be miniscule&period; This is just a narrative in support of repealing the bathroom bill&period;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;Suffice it to say, our economy is doing well,&rdquo&semi; said Forest&period; &ldquo&semi;Don&rsquo&semi;t be fooled by the media&semi; this issue is not about the economy&period; This issue is about privacy, safety and security in the most vulnerable places we go&period; This is about doing the right thing&period; And I will never trade the privacy, safety and security of a woman or a child for a basketball ticket, and neither should you&period;&rdquo&semi;&NewLine;Forest also mentioned that it was actually the NBA that took a hit and had &ldquo&semi;the lowest ticket sales&rdquo&semi; in All-Star Game history in 2016&period;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;So they lost money comparatively to what they would have made in Charlotte,&rdquo&semi; said Forest&period; &ldquo&semi;The other one was the ACC championship football game that&rsquo&semi;s been hosted year over year&period; They moved it to Orlando and had the lowest attendance in history, again losing money&period;&rdquo&semi;&NewLine;Author&rsquo&semi;s note&colon; So, the bathroom boycott has been proven to be unsuccessful on multiple fronts&period; Shouldn&rsquo&semi;t the state be more concern about protecting its citizens than having the economy improve by whopping one-tenth of 1&percnt;&quest;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;