Latinos in North Carolina pumped in $9.2 billion in 2004, but state's costs exceed taxes paid

Stella Hopkins:

Researchers said that nearly half the state's Hispanic population is illegal. They also found that the state spent $817 million providing Hispanics with key social services while collecting $756 million in taxes. That's a shortfall of $61 million, or $102 per person, the report said.

"I hope that most of us will see this as a half-full glass instead of a half-empty one," Armando Ortiz Rocha, the Consul of Mexico in Raleigh said after the report's release in Durham. "The impacts are $9 billion and the creation of so many jobs and the taxes they pay. That is very good news."

Ron Woodard, director of N.C. Listen, an immigration reform group, said that a larger population certainly spends more. But he worries that if illegal immigration isn't reduced, the cost burden on schools and health care will worsen.

He added: "The bigger issue is whether you're displacing an American and or driving down their wages."

The N.C. Bankers Association funded the research, paying nearly $140,000, said Paul Stock, executive vice president of the trade and lobbying group founded in 1897. Researchers will meet with bank members to discuss how the information might help them sell to Hispanics."This study quantifies for the first time the enormous economic contributions made by our state's Hispanic population, as well as pointing to a wide range of public policy issues and business opportunities to be explored," Thad Woodard, NCBA's CEO, said in a news release.

Immigration -- legal and illegal -- has been an increasingly contentious issue nationwide.

In the Charlotte area, the debate became especially emotional last year after two people were killed in traffic accidents allegedly caused by illegal immigrants driving drunk. U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., of Charlotte, cited the crashes when calling for tougher immigration laws.

President Bush, while calling for stricter border controls, has been pushing a program that would allow illegal immigrants to continue working in the U.S.

Businesses see Hispanics as a hot market and a low-cost work force. Critics see a growing tax burden, especially for illegal immigrants, depressed wages and jobs taken from native-born citizens and legal residents.

William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC in Raleigh, said bankers are "trying to capitalize on a black market." He also said that calculating costs without distinguishing between legal and illegal immigrants hides "the massive damage being caused by illegal immigrants by wrapping them up in the entire Hispanic population."

Study: Hispanics hurt wages while increasing spending

Report: Hispanics Create Jobs, Lower Wages In N.C.

Study: Hispanic influx created jobs, depressed wages by $2 billion