Georgia
New Jersey aims to lure Georgia firms by warning of ‘dangerous’ anti-abortion policies
The New Jersey governor’s workplace mentioned some corporations acquired letters that have been comparatively generic whereas others acquired extra focused appeals. The letters have been despatched on state letterhead with New Jersey’s golden seal.
“Financial energy is about extra than simply worth — it’s about values,” Alyana Alfaro Submit, press secretary for Murphy, mentioned in a press release. “Governor Murphy encourages companies trying to stand with their workers to look to New Jersey, a state the place they are often assured that the rights of ladies, the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood, and voters will at all times be protected.”
Some companies, together with Amazon and Starbucks, have promised to undertake new insurance policies to develop workers’ entry to abortion after the leaked Supreme Courtroom opinion indicated the Roe determination might be overturned. However most Fortune 500 corporations have remained silent on the potential ruling, which might be launched this month.
Gov. Brian Kemp’s workplace was not conscious of the New Jersey outreach till contacted by the AJC. In a prolonged assertion that cited three corporations that lately moved international or U.S. headquarters to Georgia from New Jersey, Kemp’s workplace touted the state’s pro-business local weather and “surging” worldwide commerce numbers.
“We’re blissful to have interaction on this comparability of Georgia’s No. 1 enterprise atmosphere vs. New Jersey’s,” Kemp spokeswoman Katie Byrd mentioned.
“A sitting governor wouldn’t be spending his time making one of these determined outreach if enterprise was additionally booming in his state. He’d be celebrating the announcement of multibillion greenback tasks and 1000’s of latest jobs with high quality corporations — like Gov. Kemp has had the privilege of doing a number of occasions already this 12 months.”
Gov. Brian Kemp’s workplace realized by way of contact from The Atlanta Journal-Structure that New Jersey lately made an attraction to seven Georgia companies, stressing that the Backyard State will shield the rights of these corporations’ feminine workers if Roe v. Wade is overturned. (Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@ajc.com)
Credit score: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Credit score: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Gov. Brian Kemp’s workplace realized by way of contact from The Atlanta Journal-Structure that New Jersey lately made an attraction to seven Georgia companies, stressing that the Backyard State will shield the rights of these corporations’ feminine workers if Roe v. Wade is overturned. (Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@ajc.com)
Credit score: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Credit score: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
In a model of Murphy’s letter shared with the AJC, the New Jersey governor referred to a surge of enterprise capital and 1000’s of latest jobs in superior manufacturing and clear vitality industries. He additionally cited a top quality of life, writing that “New Jersey is a state the place worth matches values.”
“Whereas we’d like to have some or your entire firm positioned in New Jersey, we perceive that it is probably not potential to take action in a single day,” he wrote. “If you have already got a presence in New Jersey, we’d welcome the chance to debate the way it could also be grown.”
Georgia has confronted earlier threats of financial blowback after Kemp signed an anti-abortion legislation shortly after taking workplace. The measure, which was rapidly blocked by a federal decide, would ban most abortions as early as six weeks, earlier than many ladies know they’re pregnant.
Some Hollywood figures and abortion rights advocates vowed financial payback after Kemp signed the measure into legislation and derided the “C-list celebrities” indignant in regards to the measure. However no main Georgia-based agency publicly opposed the measure, and there have been few threats of widespread financial backlash from out-of-state trade giants.
Actress Alyssa Milano speaks to members of the press after she delivered a letter to Gov. Brian Kemp threatening to boycott the state and urging him to not signal HB 481, a invoice that will ban most abortions at about six weeks right into a being pregnant, earlier than many ladies know they’re pregnant. Kemp signed the invoice into legislation, however a federal decide then put a maintain on it. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM
Credit score: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit score: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Actress Alyssa Milano speaks to members of the press after she delivered a letter to Gov. Brian Kemp threatening to boycott the state and urging him to not signal HB 481, a invoice that will ban most abortions at about six weeks right into a being pregnant, earlier than many ladies know they’re pregnant. Kemp signed the invoice into legislation, however a federal decide then put a maintain on it. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM
Credit score: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit score: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
That’s a distinction from the backlash in 2016 over a proposed “spiritual liberty” measure that critics noticed as discriminatory to lesbian, homosexual, bisexual and transgender Georgians. Earlier than that proposal was vetoed by then-Gov. Nathan Deal, big-name manufacturers such because the Walt Disney Co. and the NFL threatened to tug enterprise from Georgia.
Georgia is on a recruiting sizzling streak, lately touchdown the 2 largest financial growth tasks in its historical past, securing electric-vehicle crops from Hyundai and Rivian that promise to make use of greater than 15,000 individuals.
Georgia and the Backyard State have squared off earlier than, with Georgia sometimes getting the higher hand due to its decrease taxes and value of dwelling.
In 2015, Deal persuaded Mercedes-Benz to relocate its U.S. headquarters from New Jersey to metro Atlanta, the place it will definitely relocated about 1,000 jobs in a glitzy campus alongside Abernathy Street in Sandy Springs.
And Georgia lured again the company headquarters of Newell Manufacturers, the producer of the well-known Sharpie and Rubbermaid manufacturers, from the New Jersey metropolis of Hoboken to Sandy Springs. That got here lower than three years after the corporate left Georgia for New Jersey.
Georgia was on the dropping finish to New Jersey, nevertheless, for a battle over a 2,000-job enlargement by monetary tech agency Fiserv.
The states are additionally fierce opponents for movie and tv tasks, with New Jersey lately enacting beneficiant tax credit rivaling Georgia’s.
The leisure sector might be a receptive viewers to New Jersey’s appeals, although Georgia lately gained an enlargement by NBCUniversal in Doraville, and the state stays a prime filming vacation spot outdoors California.
In his letter, Murphy acknowledged recipients could be reluctant to tug up stakes. However he inspired company leaders to “unequivocally press” for abortion rights at a important second within the nation’s historical past.
“This can be a matter of grave significance,” he wrote, “and we’re blissful to share these methods which have been profitable in New Jersey in defending these rights.”