This article was a little less biased in its reporting on the impact of Hispanics in Winston-Salem and North Carolina:



Financial Impact: Issue of immigration arises
Officials weigh Hispanics' contribution to economy against costs to state government
By Bertrand M. Gutierrez, Danielle Deaver and Michael Hewlett
JOURNAL REPORTERS
Thursday, January 5, 2006

Before Gabriela Gonzalez and her husband, Sergio, opened a clothing-and-boots store in Winston-Salem, he sold Western-style shirts and jeans out of a truck on the streets.

"He always loved cowboy clothes," she said in Spanish yesterday as customers browsed the boots section. "It's something he loved to do, and people would say to him how much they loved his clothes."

That was more than nine years ago - before the couple opened Zapateria Leon and Western Wear in Greensboro. Today, the twin store in the Waughtown area of Winston-Salem is going on five years old and sells such items as designer crocodile boots made in Mexico - for a cool $450.

Gonzalez said she didn't know that she was part of a Hispanic community with a sizable effect on state and local economics. According to a study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that was released this week, purchases and tax contributions by Hispanics had a $504 million impact in Forsyth County in 2004,

All she knew was that her two older children were in school, that her 2-year-old could go to work with her and that her husband's relatives were nearby.

"We like the work. More than that, we like being with the people," said Gonzalez, who is from the Mexican city of Guanajuato.

The study, released Tuesday, was conducted by the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, which is part of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC Chapel Hill.

Backed by the N.C. Bankers Association and the Mexican Consulate in Raleigh, the study focused on the statewide economic impact of Hispanics, but it also gave a snapshot of the contributions and costs related to Hispanic residents in the state's 100 counties.

Forsyth County ranked third, behind Mecklenburg and Wake counties, in having the largest net gain of Hispanic residents from 2000 to 2004, as the population increased by 9,212. However, it was not among counties experiencing the fastest percentage of growth. They were Camden, Union, Cabarrus, Davidson, Gaston, Alamance and Wake.

The study listed many economic contributions of the Hispanic community, but it also reported that 45 percent of residents are here without documentation and are costing the state budget more than they put in - a piece of information that was not lost on several local officials.

Hispanic residents contribute $756 million in tax revenue and cost the state budget $817 million, or $102 per resident, for a net loss of $61 million, according to the study. Net costs on county and city governments were not in the report.

Statistics can be used to argue for or against such hot-button issues as immigration, explained Dan Besse, a member of the Winston-Salem City Council. Making the best of everyone's talents should remain the priority, he said.

"It's our responsibility to these individuals, who are coming here because there are jobs. They're filling positions and filling a market niche, contributing to the economy, and I think we need to provide services," Besse said.

"There's an apparent assumption by some folks that there is a question whether we will have Hispanic immigrants or not, and that's ridiculous," he said. "They are a part of our nation, and they're here to stay. The real question is more about how do we best integrate the new wave of immigration into our community."

Gloria Whisenhunt, the chairwoman of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, said yesterday that the study confirms the concerns that she and other commissioners have had for years, but she said that counties can't do much about the issue.

"It has to be addressed at the state and federal level," Whisenhunt said.

Hispanics contribute to the economy, she acknowledged, but there are costs to schools, health care and the prisons, among other services.

'Negative impact'

Debra Conrad-Shrader, the vice chairwoman of the board of commissioners, has asked what could be done about the increasing number of Hispanic students.

"It's definitely having a very negative impact," Conrad-Shrader said yesterday. "It's a strain on our budget."

She said she has no problem with legal immigrants using government services. The cost of serving illegal immigrants is a different story, she said.

"It doesn't have anything to do with racism or being unfair," Conrad-Shrader said. "It's a group of citizens who are ignoring the laws. That should be alarming"

School officials said that the education system pays in three ways for students who need to learn English: more classroom space; more English as a Second Language teachers; and more training for teachers on how to teach students.

Said Superintendent Don Martin of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools: "I think the state ought to fund ESL instruction better. We need a better instrument for doing that. Just like exceptional children, we (should) get a certain amount of money for each child."

Of the top 20 counties with the highest percentage of Hispanic students, Forsyth County ranks eighth, with 12.4 percent, or 5,976 students. Duplin, Montgomery, Lee, Sampson, Chatham, Greene and Yadkin counties took the top seven places.

Forsyth County has the third-largest concentration of Hispanic residents, with 5.6 percent of the state's 600,913 Hispanics living here.

According to the study, each Hispanic resident in North Carolina uses a net cost of $102 in services in the state budget, but it was not immediately known how much in services other residents use, said James H. Johnson Jr., who co-authored the report.

"Ah, that's what everybody wants to know," he said. "My hunch is that the number is going to be bigger."

Hispanics tend to pay a portion of the services they seek, such as health care. They are also younger and healthier than the general population, he said.

Tim Monroe, the director of the Forsyth County Health Department, said that his agency is seeing a significant increase in the number of Hispanics looking for health services, including the food-discount WIC program and the family-planning office.

More bilingual people must be hired to provide services to patients as well as inspections at construction-related businesses and restaurants opened by Hispanic entrepreneurs, Monroe said.

Purchasing power

As school and health officials deal with language barriers, so do police, fire and housing departments. Lee Garrity, the assistant city manager for public safety in Winston-Salem, said that a proposal is being drafted to increase the wages of bilingual city employees.

In the Winston-Salem metropolitan area, which includes surrounding counties, the Hispanic community wields purchasing power of nearly $573 million, compared with $588 million in Greensboro, $1.18 billion in Raleigh and $1.89 billion in Charlotte, according to the report. Mayor Allen Joines said that although Hispanic businesses and workers have had a positive effect on the local economy, he would support what many people are calling for - some type of immigration-law overhaul.

"Most Americans don't believe it's possible to send back everybody," he said. "People should be working toward American citizenship and learning the language."

• Bertrand M. Gutierrez can be reached at 727-7283 or at bgutierrez@wsjournal.com

• Danielle Deaver can be reached at 727-7279 or at ddeaver@wsjournal.com

• Michael Hewlett can be reached at 727-7326 or at mhewlett@wsjournal.com

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