Could Bathroom Law Cause Texas to Lose Billions of Dollars?

Our weekly check-in with the Texas Truth-O-Meter.

By Alain StephensFebruary 7, 2017 12:00 pm,

A major business group predicts billions of dollars in economic losses should Texas lawmakers advance “discriminatory” legislation including so-called bathroom bills or measures limiting local control of non-discrimination ordinances.

Is that a fact? Gardner Selby of the PolitiFact Texas fact-checking team has the answer.

We checked on whether the widely cited projections, linked to actions in other states, hold up.

Portions of the study commissioned by the Texas Association of Business proved solid. But other elements were shaky. One projection, for instance, rests in the Super Bowl set for Houston on Feb. 5, 2017 being moved to another state. Another extrapolates Texas losses from research rooted in Arizona’s immigration law–not that state’s failed proposal targeting LGBT residents. And the report’s biggest projected loss to Texas starts from an Indiana legislator’s comment that might lack documentary backup.

There could be heft to claims that a Texas Senate proposal poses economic risks. Opponents of Senate Bill 6, requiring Texas residents to use bathrooms matching their assigned sex at birth, underscore North Carolina’s experience, which gets TAB attention elsewhere in its report presenting the possible economic losses. In 2016, Republicans in the Tarheel State curbed protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents, touching off economic losses mostly tied to boycotts adding up to as much as $201 million, PolitiFact North Carolina confirmed.

Hear how the TAB claim scored in the player above.