Business Group Warns Texas Lawmakers Of $8.5B Loss If They Pass Anti-Transgender Rules [Video]

AUSTIN, TX — Conservative lawmakers are poised to ban transgender people from using public bathrooms matching their personal identities as a legislative priority. But business leaders are warning that targeting gay and transgender rights would harm the economy to the tune of billions of dollars.

The Texas Association of Business released a report on Tuesday detailing how bills being proposed dictating bathroom use and related matters could cost the state economy $8.5 billion annually while threatening 185,000 jobs. The hardest hit industries would be in the travel and tourism industries, according to the TAB report.

Wallace spoke at a Tuesday press conference in unveiling the study as part of its broader "Keep Texas Open For Business," Wallace said.

“Protecting Texas from billions of dollars in losses is simple," Chris Wallace, president of the business group, said during a news conference at the Capitol when the study was unveiled. "Don’t pass unnecessary laws that discriminate against Texans and our visitors. We cannot slam the door on the Texas miracle of openness, competitiveness, economic opportunity and innovation.”

TAB historically has been aligned with many initiatives undertaken by the GOP-led Legislature, including maintaining a more relaxed regulatory climate than that of other states in order to lure companies or spur corporate expansion. The state's less draconian bureaucracy has helped yield a robust economy, dubbed the "Texas Miracle" about which conservative lawmakers often boast.

But in moves many view as merely cashing in on political capital, the Republican majority often takes on issues designed to advance their most socially conservative worldview, such as the brewing war over bathroom use being led by Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

Wallace cited substantial financial losses in Indiana, and North Carolina, two states already implementing rules related to transgender people's use of bathrooms corresponding with their sexual identities.

"These are conservative projections based on hard data that tracks what is happening in other states,” Wallace said. "We must — we must — keep Texas open for business. "We cannot slam the door on the Texas miracle of openness, competitiveness, economic opportunity and innovation."

Patrick is leading the charge against transgender bathroom use, positing its allowance as opening the door to the sexual assault of women by predators — a scenario he voiced during a recent national media tour to advance his ideas. Recently, he took the further step of re-branding his opposition to transgender-friendly bathrooms as the "Women’s Privacy and Business Protection Act."

Patrick plans to introduce his brainchild formally at next year's session of the Texas Legislature set to start Jan. 10.

The TAB report ticked off the many repercussions to passing such legislation:

• Result in significant economic losses in Texas’ GDP, with estimates ranging from
$964 million to $8.5 billion
• Result in significant job losses with estimates as high as 185,000 jobs
• Substantially hamper the state’s ability to attract, recruit and retain top talent,
especially among Millennials
• Drastically impact convention and tourism industry, which has a direct economic
impact of $69 billion, generates more than $6 billion in state and local tax revenues,
and directly and indirectly supports more than 1.1 million Texas jobs (Economic
Development and Tourism, Texas Governor’s Office, 2015)
• Serve as a catalyst for domestic and global companies to choose other states over
Texas to start or expand their business.
• Alienate large, globally recognized businesses, including Apple, Google, Starbucks,
British Petroleum, Marriott, IBM, PayPal and the National Football League, which
have opposed this amendment and similar ones
• Allow for an expansion in discrimination, which is counter to prevailing public
opinion and conflicts with corporate policies that prioritize diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

To read the full TAB report, click here.

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