Is Brewer Bad for Business?

Gotta love the title of Newsweek ’s coverage of the damage that Governor Brewers politicization of immigration is doing to Arizona’s economy.

Razing Arizona

Gov. Jan Brewer’s hawkish immigration stance is good politics. But is it bad for business?

Back before they grew distant, Barry Broome, head of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, would talk to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer every few weeks. They’d brainstorm ideas for how to make the state a leader in solar and other renewable energies. He’d bring in CEOs to schmooze with her. They’d fly around the country trying to drum up business for Arizona companies. “Not once did she mention immigration,” Broome recalls.

So he never imagined what was to come: that she would sign into law one of the nation’s most draconian illegal-immigration bills; pick a costly, high-profile fight with the federal government to defend it; and create a public-relations fiasco for the state. “The question is whether the tone of the debate has fractured [Arizona],” says Broome, who hasn’t spoken to the Republican governor since her bill-signing ceremony in April.

Strains between Brewer and the state’s business community are starting to show. Though her championing of the immigration measure has proved politically popular and catapulted her to national prominence, that success has come at a price. She has essentially sided with the immigration hawks in her party, at the expense of its business wing. Backers of the law, which would require police to check the papers of those they suspect are in the country illegally, justify it partly on economic grounds, claiming it would help rid the state of undocumented people who place a burden on public services.

Yet even though the law was mostly struck down by a federal judge two weeks ago, the state has already taken an economic hit (on top of the ravages of the Great Recession). Several companies have packed up and left. At least 40 groups have canceled conventions and conferences, says Debbie Johnson, CEO of the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association. And the Phoenix area alone is projected to lose $92 million in business, according to Mayor Phil Gordon. “Anyone who says our image has not been hurt is living in a bubble,” he says.

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Image: Michael Dwyer/AP