The top economic official in Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration said the controversial “bathroom bill” has done nothing to the North Carolina economy.
Commerce Secretary John Skvarla said House Bill 2 “hasn’t moved the needle one iota” on the state economy.
PolitiFactNC previously rated a claim that HB2 had cost North Carolina $500 million as False. The downfall of that claim was it cited a study that said North Carolina might lose more than $500 million, not that it already had. At the time we found a more accurate estimate of losses was between $77 million and $201 million.
Since then hits have continued to come, including more job losses and the NBA, NCAA and ACC pulling postseason games out of North Carolina.
Even still, Skvarla’s point has some truth to it.
Read the full article to see what business consultants say, and to get a measure of just how much economic harm HB2 has done.
North Carolina's top economic official said #HB2 hasn't hurt the economy. So we ran the numbers: https://t.co/eMk59qdcLk
— PolitiFact NC (@PolitiFactNC) October 28, 2016
Doran: 919-836-2858; Twitter: @PolitiFactNC
PolitiFact North Carolina
Speaker: John Skvarla
Statement: Said House Bill 2 “hasn’t moved the needle one iota” on North Carolina’s economy
Ruling: Skvarla has a point that the economic and job losses caused by HB2 haven’t made a huge dent in the state’s unemployment rate or GDP. But they’re still not nothing. And to the individual people and counties who are missing out on hundreds of jobs and tens of millions in wages, plus the lost sports tourism, it does sting. We rate this claim Mostly False.
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