No harm from HB2? That's just re-election talk
Published October 27, 2016
Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, October 27, 2016.
John Skvarla says there's no evidence House Bill 2 has done any damage to the state's economy. "It hasn't moved the needle one iota," the state commerce secretary told The Charlotte Observer on Monday.
Nonsense. It's done plenty of damage. Losing the NBA All-Star Game alone cost the state $100 million or more. NCAA playoffs are gone. PayPal and Deutsche Bank canceled expansions that could have brought nearly 750 new jobs to the state. Just this week, we learned that the real-estate information company CoStar Group kicked Charlotte off the top of its list in favor of Richmond, Virginia, for a new 730-job headquarters - and the reason was HB2.
We have no idea how many other companies have crossed North Carolina off their lists because of the measure that allows discrimination against gay and transgender people, but we do know dozens of major corporations have filed amicus briefs supporting lawsuits against the hastily passed and ill-considered law.
Skvarla says the state is in great shape financially. If that's so, we hope he'll send a few more companies our way.
October 27, 2016 at 8:53 pm
Bruce Stanley says:
Remember "saved jobs" from the Obama stimulus package. Libs are good at coming up with numbers that can't be quantified. Now comes the Fayetteville Observer stating there is no telling how many jobs we've lost due to HB2. That can't be quantified. However the 400,000 jobs we have gained since 2013 has been quantified.
