Texas Economist Dr. Ray Perryman says his firm has found that when people have unfettered access to the ballot box, earnings within that state grow over time plus economic activity increases.
But here’s the caveat: adopting controversial legislation often causes the reverse to take place.
Perryman points to the Georgia voting bill, which led to Major League Baseball pulling this year's All-Star Game out of Atlanta, which will wind up costing the state millions of dollars in projected revenues.
Many experts say the Georgia law is not nearly as restrictive as the proposed Texas legislation. “Even if you just look at it to 2025, Texas stands to lose $14 billion dollars in output and 73,000 jobs,” says Perryman.
"And if you look at the tourism and economic development effects it could be as much as $16.7 additional billion dollars as well as another 150,000 lost jobs because so-called ‘knowledge workers’ in high tech are growing increasingly concerned about social issues and simply won't come to Texas."
On top of that, Perryman says it could cost state and local governments billions in tax dollars.