How the NRA fight between Delta and Georgia could roil Atlanta's Amazon headquarters bid

Elizabeth Weise | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption City offers to change its name to 'Amazon' in headquarters bid A city in Georgia has offered Amazon an interesting branding opportunity in the race for the company’s second North American headquarters. For more on the story here is Zach Devita.

SAN FRANCISCO – The highly politicized fight to yank a planned Georgia tax cut for Delta Air Lines following its decision to drop an NRA discount could make Atlanta a less attractive candidate for Amazon’s second headquarters, say some experts.

That sort of economic uncertainty for incentives is rare and nothing businesses want, they say. It's also a possible ding against Atlanta in a field of 19 other cities all vying for what Amazon says will be a $5 billion capital investment and 50,000 new tech-oriented jobs.

“I have never seen a case where, once an incentive was granted, it was then taken away," says Frank Hefner, a professor of economics at the University of Charleston in Charleston, S.C., who studies the role of financial incentives in economic development. “This is capricious."

Georgia's Senate on Thursday approved a tax bill that removes a $50 million jet fuel tax exemption after Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines said it would stop giving discounts to National Rifle Association members in the wake of the mass shooting at a Florida high school Feb. 14.

The bill had already passed in the state House, so the two bodies must now craft a final version to send to the governor’s desk.

Delta was one of several companies that halted special deals with members of the influential gun-rights lobby, saying it was ending the contract to reflect its neutral position in the national debate over gun control.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal says he will pursue the Delta exemption separately. In a news conference Wednesday he said Georgia "is a welcoming state, the epitome of Southern hospitality."

Georgia's lieutenant governor had been more blunt, tweeting "corporations cannot attack conservatives and expect us not to fight back."

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. The Seattle e-retailer, similar to other makers of streaming Internet TV devices, has resisted a public pressure campaign to remove the NRA's public relations channel from its Amazon Fire streaming device. More than 200,000 people signed a petition at Change.org started by Daniel Reed, the father of a student who survived the shooting, that calls on Amazon to remove NRAtv from its website.

The company's unusual decision last year to accept public, competing proposals for a city or region with a "stable and business-friendly environment" where it will build a second headquarters sparked fierce competition among hundreds of municipalities vying for the high-paying jobs, investment and bragging rights that would come with luring Amazon. The company earlier this year narrowed its short list down to 20.

Atlanta boosters say Georgia is doing itself no favors with the rush to punish Delta, one of the state's largest employers.

An editorial in Wednesday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted prominent Atlanta businessman Larry Gellerstedt saying companies notice when businesses are punished for taking stances based on their values.

These issues "get absolutely included in the dialogue for competing cities and states to use. It’s naïve to think otherwise,” he says.

Gellerstedt says he is very concerned about playing politics with these issues, which he calls "sort of like playing roulette with jobs.” He is board chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based Cousins Properties and led the real estate task force that examined potential Atlanta sites for Amazon as part of its bid.

A turbulent political environment is exactly the situation corporations want to avoid, says Jeffrey Shulman, a marketing professor at the University of Washington in Seattle who studies Amazon.

“If you’re running a major company, it’s a scary thought that your business decisions could affect" incentives further down the road, he says.

Amazon's request for proposals for its second headquarters includes a requirement for "a compatible cultural and community environment."

Just as Delta ran afoul of Georgia lawmakers over the NRA, Amazon in Georgia could come to grief over its long-standing support for LGBTQ rights, including signing on to friend of the court filings for a transgender student in Virginia.

That stance is at odds with strong sentiments among some Georgian lawmakers. Last week, the state Senate passed a bill allowing adoption agencies funded with taxpayer money to refuse to help same-sex couples adopt.

In 2016, the state almost passed a “religious liberty” bill that allowed religious organizations to deny services and jobs to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Deal vetoed the bill. He leaves office this year and some who are expected to run for the position have stated their support for similar laws.

The business world is also changing in that more and more companies are “becoming the strongest voices in debates like these,” says Kenneth Merritt, managing director of strategy and transformation at the consulting firm MorganFranklin.

“Fifty years ago, corporations never took positions on social issues. This is a new trend,” says Hefner.

More: Is sticking by the NRA a branding problem? Ask FedEx, Apple and Amazon

More: NRA fallout: See the list of companies that cut discounts for NRA members after Parkland, Florida school shooting