CHARLOTTE—Companies protesting House Bill 2 have cost North Carolina more than 1750 jobs and more than $77 million-worth of investments and visitor spending.
That's according to estimates Time Warner Cable News put together from tourism and business groups across the state.
HB 2 overturns Charlotte’s non-discrimination ordinance, which protected people who are transgender in using the bathroom for the gender with which they identify.
Republican legislators argued that ordinance would give a defense to sexual predators to attack people in women’s bathrooms.
HB 2 also banned cities from making their own non-discrimination policies in the future, as well as minimum wage policies.
The law excludes sexual orientation and gender identity from discrimination complaints, and it bars people from filing discrimination complaints in state court.
That type of suit now goes straight to federal court.
Well over 100 business executives have signed a Human Rights Campaign petition against HB 2.
But some, like PayPal and an unnamed tech company the Raleigh Chamber cites, have opted to ditch new operations in North Carolina.
Dozens of conventions and concerts have canceled their plans here.
Governor Pat McCrory says those boycotts won't affect the state's bottom line.
“It's a $22 billion budget, we have over 22 thousand businesses in North Carolina, 10 million people in North Carolina. It's a pretty massive budget. Our revenue projections are pretty consistent,” he said.
A Commerce Department spokesperson notes those are promised jobs which are now not coming to North Carolina, not jobs which were here leaving the state. She added that in some cases, it may be possible to substitute lost events revenue with other bookings.