PHOENIX — A boycott brought on by Arizona's immigration crackdown raised the specter of vacant convention centers, desolate sports arenas and struggling businesses throughout the state.
Seven months later, the boycott's effects are coming into focus, showing it has been a disruptive force but nowhere near as crippling as originally feared.
Businesses have lost lucrative contracts and conventions have relocated, performers called off concerts, and cities and counties in about a dozen states passed resolutions to avoid doing business with Arizona. A report released Thursday says the boycott has cost the state $141 million in lost meeting and convention business since Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law in April.
But the state's economy hasn't come to a screeching halt - as some who organized the boycott hoped. In fact, more people went to the Grand Canyon this summer than last year, and more stayed in Arizona's hotels and resorts, according to a review by The Associated Press.
Many conventions decided not to move, despite questions from their members. At the Phoenix Convention Center on Thursday, about 1,300 exhibitors, distributors and buyers were attending an annual show put on by the National School Supply & Equipment Association.
"We just kind of kept our eye on our members, and at least in our industry, they were coming whether that law was there or not," said Bill Duffy, the group's vice president of operations and meetings.
The most controversial parts of the law are on hold, including a section that would require police officers who are enforcing other laws to question the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country illegally. The federal government has won an injunction blocking the provisions and Arizona is awaiting a decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on its appeal.
Civil rights groups organized the boycott to slow the state's economy in much the same way that a boycott punished Arizona 20 years ago over its refusal to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with a holiday.
This time around, groups called on people not to fly Tempe-based US Airways or rent trucks from Phoenix-based U-Haul. There was talk of fighting Major League Baseball's plans for holding the All Star Game in Phoenix next year.
Most of those protests haven't come to fruition. The midsummer classic is still on, a spokeswoman for US Airways said the company saw no effect from the boycott call, and a U-Haul International executive said the same thing.
Still, some Arizona businesses have taken a big hit. In August, officials in Santa Monica, Calif., recommended that Phoenix-based Cavco Industries be awarded a $3 million contract to replace 20 aging mobile homes in a city-owned park. But the city council refused to give the contract to Cavco - the low bidder - because the company is Arizona-based, and Santa Monica had passed a resolution imposing sanctions.
An analysis commissioned by the Center for American Progress put hotel industry losses during the first four months after the signing of the law at about $45 million. Visitors would have spent an additional $96 million during their stays, said Angela Kelley, the group's vice president for immigration policy and advocacy.
The study was paid for by the group, a liberal-leaning think tank. It was conducted by the Scottsdale-based economic firm Elliott D. Pollack & Co. It also found that canceled meetings and conferences could cost the state nearly 2,800 jobs, $87 million in lost wages and more than $250 million in lost economic output over the next two to three years.
Chron.com
No comments:
Post a Comment