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| PayPal has withdrawn plans for its Charlotte expansion because of North Carolina’s new law limiting legal protections for LGBT individuals. Here Gov. Pat McCrory clenches his fist as he announces at the announcement for the expansion last month. Diedra Laird dlaird@charlotteobserver.com |
In a move that will cost the city hundreds of jobs, PayPal on Tuesday scrapped plans for a new Charlotte operations center in the most dramatic corporate response yet to a new North Carolina law that limits the legal protections of LGBT individuals.
The payment processor’s decision led to renewed calls for Gov. Pat McCrory and the state legislature to overturn a law that has drawn criticism from big companies such as Bank of America and American Airlines as well as sports organizations such as the NBA. The CEO of Red Ventures, a prominent Charlotte-area marketing and technology firm, on Tuesday said he would “seriously reconsider” adding jobs in the state because of the legislation approved last month.
N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat running against McCrory in this November’s election, said the legislation, known as House Bill 2, poses a threat to the state’s economy.
“These are new, better paying jobs North Carolina won’t get because Governor McCrory has put his political ideology above all else,” Cooper said. “It’s time to reverse course and take actions to undo the damage.”
Meanwhile, supporters of the law placed blame on Charlotte city leaders, who passed an expanded non-discrimination ordinance that spurred the legislation, and showed no sign of retreating.
North Carolina’s new law, signed March 23 by McCrory, limits legal protections of LGBT individuals by setting a statewide definition of protected classes of citizens. The new law means schools and local governments cannot adopt more inclusive rules. Legislative leaders said they were responding to the Charlotte’s ordinance, which would have allowed transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender with which they identify.
House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Leader Phil Berger, both Republicans, said in a statement that Democratic Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts and Cooper should stop their “misinformation campaign” and immediately “start telling the truth about this commonsense bathroom safety law.”
Sen. Jeff Tarte, a Cornelius Republican who voted for HB2, said the state “can’t ignore” the PayPal decision.
“We need to be listening when these businesses have these kind of concerns,” he said. “We need to get around the table and understand what their real concerns are.”
Tarte said there may be some room to change the law, to a point. “I don’t want men in girls’ showers. That’s not negotiable. … And Charlotte’s ordinance would allow that to happen.”
At a high school in Jamestown, where he was already scheduled to talk about education initiatives, McCrory said it’s up to individual companies to decide how to deal with the new law, according to the Associated Press. McCrory said he expects PayPal to continue providing services in North Carolina.
After taking several questions on the topic, McCrory ended the question-and-answer session and went into the school’s administrative office, avoiding reporters who waited in front of the school to ask additional questions.
PayPal project drew McCrory’s praise
Just last month, PayPal executives gathered with state leaders at the Charlotte Chamber to hold a triumphant announcement of the new operations center, which would employ more than 400. McCrory said the San Jose, Calif.-based company was the kind of technologically advanced company North Carolina and Charlotte need to attract.
“Young people know all about it,” McCrory said March 18 of the online payments platform. He presented PayPal executive John McCabe with a wooden bowl made by an artist from a tree struck by lightning outside the state capitol to commemorate the occasion. “Charlotte continues to be a great job-creation center,” the governor added.
After the passage of HB2, PayPal chief Dan Schulman, however, emerged as one of the more than 100 prominent CEOs to condemn the law. On Tuesday, he announced the company’s decision to nix the Charlotte operations center in an open letter.
“The new law perpetuates discrimination and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal’s mission and culture. As a result, PayPal will not move forward with our planned expansion into Charlotte,” Schulman said Tuesday.
The company had planned to open its office at 1000 Louis Rose Place, off Research Drive in the University City area. PayPal said the jobs would have an average salary of nearly $51,000 a year, and the company committed to invest $3.6 million in its new facility.
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