‘Bathroom bill’ costs North Carolina US$3.7B

A year after North Carolina enacted a law regulating transgender people’s use of public restrooms, sparking boycotts and costing the state jobs and sports events alike, a new analysis says the legislation’s economic fallout is greater than previously estimated.

The so- called “bathroom bill” could cost the state at least US$3.7 billion by 2028, according to an Associated Press assessment that tallied the losses — confirmed and projected — from events, meetings and business expansions that were scrapped due to the law.

North Carolina has grappled with protests, lost tourism dollars and high- profile rebukes from sports leagues i ncluding t he NBA and NCAA since it enacted the measure in March 2016.

While t he l aw is best known for its provisions requiring people to use public restrooms that match the sex on their birth certificates instead of their gender identities, it also has a broader sweep, limiting some minimum- wage standards and reversing local ordinances that expanded protections for LGBT people.

The NBA pulled its AllStar Game from North Carolina, the NCAA withdrew a number of sporting events — including men’s basketball tournament games that would have been played there this month — and Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Ringo Starr and Cirque

THE NBA PULLED ITS ALL-STAR GAME FROM THE STATE.

du Soleil performances were all scrapped.

Most of the l osses the AP tallied came from a tech company calling off big plans for the state just days after then- governor Pat McCrory, a Republican, signed the law.

PayPal, the online payments firm based in California, had said it planned to open a global operations centre in Charlotte, which McCrory’s office said would pump millions into the area and employ 400 people. But the following week, McCrory quickly signed the law, which PayPal’s president and chief executive said “perpetuates discrimination and … violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal’s mission and culture.”

The expansion was off. And according to a North Carolina Commerce Department analysis, the impact was massive, as officials there expected PayPal to put more than $ 2.6 billion into the state’s economy by 2028.

PayPal was the first major domino to fall.

Deutsche Bank, the German financial giant, called off its own expansion that it said would have added 250 new jobs.

The state Commerce Department had expected the bank to add more than $500 million to the economy, which makes it the secondbiggest loss.