North Carolina Republicans are a little touchy these days after they enacted a blatantly discriminatory statute that is being likened to Jim Crow-era laws. But rather than resolving to repeal the bill, they’ve decided to bully state businesses instead. If everyone would just SHUT UP! about their disastrous legislating, everything would be fixed: that DOJ lawsuit, the thousands of lost jobs and millions in lost revenue, and a potential loss of $4.8 billion in federal funding—all just wiped away. Caitlin MacNeal reports:
North Carolina Republican lawmakers have been threatening lobbyists with retribution if the businesses they represent speak out against the state's new controversial anti-LGBT law, according to a report from Raleigh television station WRAL.
WRAL interviewed 11 lobbyists who said they have been warned by lawmakers or staff members about the potential for legislation targeting their clients or attempts to block legislation that lobbyists have been pushing. None of the lobbyists spoke on the record.
"I've never seen anything like it," one unnamed lobbyist told WRAL about the pressure seen from lawmakers.
Republican Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger was shocked by the revelation and said he had never heard of such a thing. But when the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce—which is supposed to be about promoting business in the state—issued a wishy-washy statement on HB2 Wednesday after months of silence and failed to call for full repeal of the law, House Speaker Tim Moore was all too quick to praise the Chamber.
Right, because Moore and his Republican cronies were so "thoughtful"—dare I say, contemplative—when passing HB2.
In contrast to the state chamber, the Chambers of Commerce in Raleigh and Chapel Hill-Carrboro both called for repeal of HB2. The state chamber instead recommended reinstating the ability for individuals to sue for employment discrimination in state courts and updating the state’s nondiscrimination code to match the federal government’s. But it failed in any real way to address the bathroom provision that’s been wreaking economic havoc on the state’s economy.
Here’s Time Warner Cable News on its interview with Chamber president and CEO Lew Ebert:
According to Ebert, the Chamber doesn't think that House Bill 2 will be repealed. And if it isn't repealed, they have ideas to make it better, saying lawsuits won't be settled quickly. The chamber is suggesting ideas to bring HB2 in line with federal government. He also says it needs to be done by the end of the short legislative session.
Ebert said that the chamber is more focused on the skills gap in NC than the minimum wage. He called HB2 a "distraction" and said NC is making "quantum leaps" in the business climate.
Wonder who got to him.
