State of uncertainty

by | Apr 17, 2015 | Economic Development, Economy, Editor's Blog | 10 comments

Republicans were caught off guard by the response to the so-called religious freedom bills in Indiana and Arkansas. Businesses, large corporations in particular, rebuked leaders for supporting the thinly-veiled anti-LGBT legislation. In both states, the governors had to walk back their positions. In North Carolina, a similar piece of legislation that was barreling through the General Assembly came to a screeching halt. We’ll see if it shows up again this session.

The shock for Republicans was not that people complained about the laws. The surprise was that corporate America cares about the issue. Republicans thought that the only things that mattered to businesses are taxes and regulations. It never occurred to them that job creators also care about how a state treats their employees.

In North Carolina, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst is speaking out against the bill and he’s just one of dozens of tech company leaders coming out against such legislation. A petition is circulating among tech companies that discourages states from adopting measures that could be construed as discriminatory toward the LGBT community. The list signers reads like a who’s who of the communications and technology sectors and includes CEOs from Google, AT&T, Verizon, Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Linkdin, Yahoo!, PayPal and Cisco Systems. A state desperately trying to claw its way out of recession should worry more about offending these expanding companies than mollifying a shrinking group of religious conservatives.

The broader lesson the Republicans running North Carolina should take away is that companies look at far more than just taxes and regulations when deciding where to locate. They’ve already effectively killed the film industry and cost the state thousands of jobs by ending an incentive program that worked. Nationally, people are looking at North Carolina and wondering what is going on in a state that they used to see as a leader in education, technology and innovation.

In addition to lower operating costs, companies looking for a place to locate want stability and continuity, not upheaval and transformation. For almost five years, the GOP has been remaking North Carolina, creating uncertainty and insecurity. The so-called Carolina Comeback has brought low-paying jobs with stagnant wages. We’re one the few states where our median income is still below where it was when the Great Recession hit more than seven years ago.

Republicans need to stop transforming and start governing. Our economic development depends on more than just low taxes, low wages and fewer regulations. The companies of the future want high a quality of life for their employees and aren’t going to tolerate reactionary policies. The GOP has made their changes. Now, make them work.

10 Comments

  1. Joanne Campbell

    McCrory stated that he would never sign a “religious freedom” bill, but why would we believe him? He also stated before he became Governor (sad to say) that he would not sign any bill that limited a woman’s right to choose, yet it was one of his first ‘accomplishments’. The man cannot tell the truth about anything, in my opinion. Get him out!!

  2. Dianne H.

    We HAVE to get McCrory out of here. What happened to the ‘Progressive South’ that so embodied North Carolina?! Hate Yankees?, well their money and talent won’t be coming or remain here with all of this NON separation of state and reliousity going on in the legislature.

  3. Frank McGuirt

    I was told that a ranking Republican told the Republican House membership in 2011, and. I paraphrase, , “you can rule for a short time or you can govern for many”. Looks to me as if they’ve elected to rule. That abuse will soon end.

    • Cynthia Strain

      Frank, from your lips to God’s ears.

  4. Russell Scott Day

    As a filmmaker and one that aimed to work my way up the ladder, I found that there was only a step stool, and no top rugs to the ladder to climb.

    Incentives are just bribes and when the Creative Classes got done with whatever work set in the state used merely as a backdrop for actors when looking for a place infused with poverty and ignorance, they ran. What exactly sort of life do you think they might enjoy in a xenophobic racist town, like Wilmington? None of the Agents, or Producers that have access to Distribution build homes in the state. There are no bankers that lend on a “take out agreement”.

    Remember what it meant to the state when Liquor By the Drink was allowed? Imagine if pot was made legal.

    Don’t like Blacks, Don’t like Jews, Don’t like old hippies, or you know, Yankees, then sure enough they run when you just stop giving them money so they will put up with, or outright use the state.

    I’ve long pushed for a Disc Golf TV Event using wisecracking musicians. I found the money could legitimately come from hotel taxes on rooms, since people like to visit places they see on TV and in the movies.

    I suppose it is to me more about what you are referring to, that helps make and keep people poor in NC, culture.

    High Point Furniture Showrooms were perfect places to make shows, what with all the sets, but over there the business owners said things like “We’re Christians”.

    Ethics trump religion in the commons every time, because religion pushes lots of things onto people that are moral to them, but unethical to the many.

    Those who have legacy power in the State of North Carolina, don’t want to ever see labor get good paychecks for much of anything that is new since they hate to pay or even see others from out of state pay more than they think labor ought be getting, see.

  5. aleyct

    Anyone with business sense should be against ‘religious freedom bills’ which allow the employee to decide if and when they will do their job. No such thing should even be considered for public or private business operations. It just goes to show you how disgustingly greedy the republican party has become and also proves they are not the party of business.

    • TY Thompson

      Really? Why golly gee, it seems like just yesterday that someone on this board was telling me that Republicans and Wall Street are one and the same. Someone get back to me when we can all agree to one story.

      • Apply Liberally

        Sorry to see, TY, that you can’t follow separate trains of thought. Or, is it that you enjoy fabricating false narratives out of different posters’ thoughts? Pray tell…?

  6. Centerish

    I disagree that the NC government killed the film industry. There is simply no way to compete with the incentives GA is handing out. It is very far from a mathematical certainty that film incentives create jobs. Many of those “NC jobs” actually go to temporarily relocated people from LA. Get your shots in where you can I guess, but that one misses the mark.

  7. Progressive Wing

    Great piece, Thomas.
    Will be interesting (and, at the same time, sad) to read any comments here from those who mistakenly think NC’s religious freedom bill is a good thing and will help the state…..

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