Governor Would Declare Special Session For Amazon

ATLANTA, GA — Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said Tuesday that he'll call for a special session of the General Assembly if it looks like more legislative help is needed to bring a new Amazon headquarters to the state.

Speaking at the annual Eggs and Issues breakfast — sponsored by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce at the beginning of each year's legislative session — Deal urged lawmakers to get on with other business in the mean time.

The state has made a competitive bid to become home to "HQ2," a second headquarters for the Seattle-based technology giant that would bring $5 billion in spending and 50,000 high-paying jobs to the state, Deal said.

"If Georgia makes the list of final three contenders for HQ2, I will call a special session so that we can make whatever statutory changes are required to accommodate a business opportunity of this magnitude," Deal said in his speech. "To do so before we know where we stand would be presumptuous on our part and premature."

Amazon put out a call for proposals in September and 238 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico responded. While no list of finalists has been announced so far, Atlanta is mentioned by many analysts as a leading contender for the new site.

Also Worth Reading:

• Scrooge Helps Atlanta Lure Amazon In New Video
• How Likely Is Atlanta To Land Amazon Headquarters?
• Atlanta Workers Excited About Possible Amazon Headquarters
  

In his speech, Deal was basically telling state House and Senate members, who convened this week for their annual, 40-day session, not to worry about Amazon for now. "Rest assured," Deal said, "we made a strong, highly competitive offer."

"We have opportunities over the next few months to strengthen our education system, improve the health and safety of our youngest citizens and invest in our network of transportation infrastructure," Deal said in the speech at the Georgia World Congress Center. "We cannot allow those opportunities to pass us by as we wait on another."

A leading economic analyst has ranked Georgia as the No. 2 candidate to land the new headquarters, behind Austin, Texas.

Moody's Analytics analyzed five key categories — business environment, human capital, cost, quality of life and transportation. On a scale of 1-5, here's how Atlanta scored in each of the five categories on its way to the second-place spot.

• Business environment — 3.63
• Human capital — 4.32
• Cost — 3.28
• Quality of life — 2.5
• Transportation — 1.67

The firm also looked at a "wild card" geography category, on the chance that Amazon may be looking at certain areas, like the economically attractive Northeast Corridor or cities closer to the halls of government in Washington D.C., with favor. When geography is factored in, Philadelphia moves from third to first and Pittsburgh slides into the No. 2 spot ahead of Atlanta.

Photo via office of Gov. Nathan Deal