ATLANTA – The head of Mercedes Benz USA bristled Thursday about how news stories have portrayed a special $1.2 million break on car tags for his employees, saying “tax incentives mean almost nothing.”
“It’s weird that the thing that means the least gets the most attention,” said Steve Cannon, the West Point grad and former soldier who rose to the top of the German luxury carmaker’s American sales division.
He was responding to a reporter’s question during a speech to the Atlanta Press Club about the tax break signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Nathan Deal. The tag legislation is in addition to about $23 million in other incentives the state promised.
“If you make a 50-year decision, tax incentives mean almost nothing,” Cannon said.
Instead, quality of life and the support of the business community mean more when deciding where to locate the corporate campus for what he calls a reset.
“You spread a few million dollars on incentives over 50 years, and it has zero impact on the bottom line,” he said, adding that the incentives merely help offset the company’s cost of the move.
The company is moving to Sandy Springs in coming weeks and will build a complex of offices next year. The 800 high-paying jobs it is bringing were much sought-after, and states competing for them with an array of tax breaks and other freebies.
Cannon had lived in the Atlanta area earlier in his career, giving Georgia an edge.
He said it’s important for people working on the marketing of Mercedes’ automobiles to be familiar with them. So the company offers them to employees through discounted leases that lets them drive a new vehicle every year.
Having to pay the full tax on all of those leased vehicles would be too expensive to continue the program, he told state officials.
“We said this from the very beginning: ‘This is going to be a real problem. Can you help us on that?'” he recounted.
Deal signed the tag legislation into law without public ceremony. It was the final bill passed by the General Assembly this year, and the provision for Mercedes was added at the last minute without the knowledge of most lawmakers.
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