Dane County Executive Joe Parisi sent a letter to Gov. Scott Walker Monday in which he urged Walker not to sign any laws that allow for discrimination based on sexual orientation. Parisi also suspended all nonessential travel to states with these laws.
Parisi stressed the business impacts other states have seen due to new laws that allow discrimination against the LGBT community on religious grounds. In the letter, he noted PayPal decided not to build its global operations center in North Carolina after the state passed the law.
He also asked PayPal to move the global operations center to Wisconsin, and noted that 120 Wisconsin business leaders have condemned the North Carolina law.
In addition, he said that Coca-Cola and Delta nearly left Georgia because a similar law passed the state legislature. Georgia’s governor ultimately vetoed the bill. According to Parisi, Indiana also lost $60 million in various revenue after it passed a similar law last year.
Parisi asked Walker if he is committed to not considering, drafting, reviewing and adopting such legislation here in Wisconsin before he ended the letter.
“By being closed to discrimination Wisconsin can truly be open to business and desperately needed new employment opportunities,” Parisi said as he ended the letter. “Our communities and families need the jobs. Our citizens deserve the respect.”
In a separate Monday letter to all Dane County department heads, Parisi suspended nonessential conference, training and travel requests to North Carolina and Mississippi, which also passed a similar discriminatory law.
"Just last week, the Governor of Mississippi signed legislation that allows people to be treated differently simply because of who they are and who they love," Parisi said in the letter to county officials. "While I certainly value the continuing education and other benefits of professional training and development, I am optimistic similar opportunities are available to you in states that don't actively promote discrimination."
