The race for General Electric Co.’s headquarters has been receiving a lot of press in recent weeks, and why wouldn’t it? GE is, after all, one of the 15 or so most profitable companies in the United States. It would be a big, shiny, blue and white feather in the cap of whatever state manages to lure it from frigid Connecticut and its increasing business taxes. Georgia, after attracting companies like Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Caterpillar, a sizable chunk of the film industry, and more, has been a presumed frontrunner from the day that GE’s discomfort became public. Multiple Atlanta developers, including CBRE Global Investors, Tishman Speyer, and Wakefield Beasley have all put together proposals for headquarters in Atlanta area locations such as Atlantic Station, Buckhead, and Midtown. But the race certainly isn’t over – multiple states are lining up to make their pitches to the multi-national conglomerate.
Cincinnati, New York City, Tampa, and perhaps most threateningly Dallas have all been hard at work putting together their own bids for GE, with tax breaks and incentives and work forces and weather, (well, for some of them) that makes this pitch the most difficult of Governor Nathan Deal’s accomplished tenure.
And while politics, (and the tax rates that derive from them) are a key reason that GE is moving in the first place, it may be a different side of that same coin that determines where the company winds up. The Religious Freedom Bills passed in states like Indiana have already stirred up political drama with unhappy businesses, and here in Georgia politicos on both sides are gearing up for another fight in the 2016 legislative session. But don’t worry Josh McKoon, you’re off the hook for this one – General Electric isn’t basing their decision on the RFRA. In this case it is the Export-Import Bank, and more specifically the adamant opposition to it from several high profile Texas lawmakers, that has allegedly eliminated Dallas from contention as a potential relocation spot.
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