Letter writer: HB2 prompts Asheville company’s decision

Graphic by Lori Deaton

I’ve never written in but feel compelled to share our recent development.

Human Companies is a small business-support company that provides mostly bookkeeping services (humanbookkeeping.com) on a national basis. We are in the process of expanding our service offering significantly, both in scope and geography, through licensing and franchising our operation. As such, our plan is to sell our first franchise in the coming months and have decided to do so out-of-state.

While we will continue to keep our headquarters here in Asheville, a city dear to us, we will move our U.S. operations to Colorado with its more progressive policies. Our workforce telecommutes, so the choice is somewhat easy. While no place is perfect in its policies, North Carolina is painting itself into a corner as the laughingstock of the United States — nationally manifesting its insecurities on the larger stage.

I look forward to the day when I open The New York Times and find our gorgeous state more properly represented than crude bathroom humor that I find far from funny.

Best of luck in retaining more of our earnings at a future date based on performance!

— Aaron Eisendrath
Asheville

SHARE

Thanks for reading through to the end…

We share your inclination to get the whole story. For the past 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth, balanced reporting about the greater Asheville area. We want everyone to have access to our stories. That’s a big part of why we've never charged for the paper or put up a paywall.

We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Advertising no longer pays the whole cost. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. Xpress needs help, too. We hope you’ll consider signing up to be a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. It only takes a moment.

About Letters
We want to hear from you! Send your letters and commentary to letters@mountainx.com

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

13 thoughts on “Letter writer: HB2 prompts Asheville company’s decision

    • Larry

      Well perhaps you won’t miss them but you can bet that others are going to miss them. At this point the Mayor of Greensboro said his city alone has lost over 6 million dollars. It’s great that you don’t need money but it turns out that others in the state do. The longer McCrory refuses to pull this legislation, the more NC will lose when everybody knows that he’s going to fold at some point. The guy was ahead in the polls until he brought in HB2 so you can bet at some point he’s going to pull the legislation.

      • boatrocker

        I agree but it begs the question-

        Since when has McCrory ever cared about his non millionaire constituents?

        6 mill is but a drop in the bucket compared to what is spent by the military in 24 hrs but pennies add up to dollars and dollars add up to well, you know, influence. It won’t be until tourism, our sacred cow is directly affected that folks might pay attention.

        Until then, cue the Book of Leviticus and Ayn Raynd comments.

        • Winyan

          Yep and now it will be millions more and devastate our education system from K through college…. he’s better care about THAT! and all the blowhards in the state house too! It’s an election year – we’ve got the power to boot them all to the curb!

  1. James

    So you’re going to keep your headquarters in Asheville but move U.S. operations to Colorado? In other words, you’re still a North Carolina company. You sir are a hypocrite.

  2. DBAG

    Not sure NC’s economy can recover from this one! A huge loss of 0 franchises. It’s getting rough.

  3. bsummers

    Since when has McCrory ever cared about his non millionaire constituents?

    He may have to start caring. The US Justice Dept. just sent him letter which basically threatens NC with a loss of a billion dollars of education funding, if they don’t ditch HB2.

    US Justice Department: HB2 violates federal Civil Rights Act
    http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article75601912.html

    3… 2… 1…

    Dang that Obama! Hasn’t he ever heard of States Rights?! Derp???!

    • Peter Robbins

      Nothing to worry about. I have it on the highest authority that HB2 is “good law.”

    • boatrocker

      I read the same thing yesterday, but again I would think any Gov. callous enough to ram HB2 down NC’s throats most likely doesn’t give a patooty about education either.

  4. Winyan

    Ya’ll are missing some important points here – this is a racist, BS, red herring , middle finger to the Supreme Court for overturning or nullifying Amendment One…. McCory cares little for anyone but himself…. I and most women would be MUCH more shocked to see a person dressed as a man coming into the ladies room because they didn’t have time or money to have their birth certificate changed to their current gender…. read I am NOT OFFENDED! And now all you women, who were screaming rape or abuse of our little girls, are going to have to explain why that “man” was in the ladies room – GOOD JOB!!! – cause we can turn lemons into lemonade… teaching moment for our LBGT community, be ready to hand out a flyer to the confused children about tolerance and human rights. And most bathrooms have stalls, if they don’t then they have a lock on the door – this proves this bill is bull cookies and an election year red herring to gin up the intolerant, homophobic, lunatic fringe…. can we please move on to real issues of corporate control over our gov’t, education, food, and most of all media – truth in reporting, to name just a few issues much more worthy of our time during this election year! Kudos for this and other businesses for standing up, speaking out and putting their money where their mouths are – the only thing that the republicans care about is money – so everyone VOTE with your money, don’t buy from them, don’t support them, because at the end of the day, I believe there are more of us than them…. and most important – VOTE Roy Cooper for our next governor and the other republican’s like him…

  5. Gary miller

    Glad I’m in great state of SC but love gov Mc Cory and Nikki by the way go Donald by way Hillary would suck in Oval Office like another intern did ! Love all Carolina folks

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.