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'Naked politics' of punishing Delta could haunt Georgia
Decision may have long-tem negative effects for state
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In this 2016, file photo, a Delta Air Lines jet sits at a gate at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta. Georgia lawmakers punished Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines on Thursday for its decision to cut business ties with the National Rifle Association in the wake of a shooting at a Florida high school that killed over a dozen people. A tax measure, which was stripped of a jet-fuel tax break, passed the GOP-dominated Senate 44-10. - photo by Associated Press
ATLANTA — Georgia lawmakers' decision to punish Delta Air Lines for publicly distancing itself from the National Rifle Association was an extraordinary act of political revenge. By killing a proposed tax break on jet fuel, pro-gun Republicans won a political victory that could pay off in the short term, but other companies won't soon forget that Georgia allied itself with the NRA over one of its largest private employers, with 33,000 workers statewide. "When you inject naked politics — and that's what this is — into the economic equation, I think that it does have the chance of spooking the business community," said Tom Stringer, a New York-based consultant for the business-advisory firm BDO. "One thing about the business community is that it has a very long memory."
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