File: David Goldman | Associated PressGeorgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle threatened to prevent Delta Air Lines from getting a lucrative tax cut after the company ended its discount program with the National Rifle Association. 

ATLANTA – A proposal to restore a tax break for airline companies has found trouble at the statehouse after Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines announced it was ending a discount for members of the National Rifle Association. 

State lawmakers had fast-tracked a measure that would exempt airlines from paying a tax on fuel, worth about $35 million in savings next year.

With Gov. Nathan Deal’s full-throated support, the tax break was included in a broader measure that would cut income tax rates in Georgia. That proposal has moved swiftly through the legislative process – until now.

“I will kill any tax legislation that benefits @Delta unless the company changes its position and fully reinstates its relationship with @NRA,” Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who leads the Senate and who is running for governor, tweeted Monday. “Corporations cannot attack conservatives and expect us not to fight back.”

The bill has already cleared the House, but that’s one vote some may wish they could take back. 

“I am disappointed that certain corporations have chosen to engage in a sensitive debate by vilifying law-abiding supporters of Second Amendment rights,” House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, said in a statement. 

“Likewise, I am troubled that this information was not made public until after the House of Representatives passed our comprehensive tax reform measure,” Ralston added. 

Several lawmakers said behind-the-scenes negotiations were underway that might salvage the tax break. But others said they are ready to offload the perk and move on. 

“They’ve stepped on the wrong toes,” said Rep. Jason Shaw, R-Lakeland. “We don’t need to be giving any kind of tax break to corporate citizens who don’t have any respect for our conservative values that the majority of Georgians share.” 

Rep. Jason Ridley, R-Chatsworth, who is a member of the NRA, vowed to never fly with Delta again, even if the airline does ultimately reverse its decision.

“If you’ve always given discounts to senior citizens and then all of a sudden you don’t, then you’re alienating those people,’” Ridley said. 

“What you’ve just done is you’ve just told every NRA member that, ‘We don’t want you flying on our airplanes,’” he added.

Delta argues it was trying to shift to a neutral posture in the gun debate. 

“All we’ve simply done is drop a group airfare for the NRA’s national meeting,” the company said in a statement. “This specific convention and the group airfares had become a rallying cry in the current national debate over guns and school shootings.”

The company also noted it made a similar move last year when a theater production portrayed the assassination of President Donald Trump. 

The tax break for airlines was already controversial but proponents argue that Georgia taxes airlines at higher rates than other states with a hub airport, which they said puts major employers such as Delta at a competitive disadvantage. The airlines lost the tax break in 2015. 

The airline’s announcement came a little more than a week after a gunman killed 17 students and teachers at a Florida high school. Other companies, including United Airlines, have also to distanced themselves from the NRA since the shooting.

Sen. Greg Kirk, R-Americus, said Delta should extend its decision to all groups. 

“When you say everybody else can come but you can’t, that’s not neutral,” Kirk said, noting Delta’s opposition to a religious liberty proposal he sponsored in 2016 that was ultimately vetoed.

“Delta should not single out any group to discriminate against them,” Kirk said. 

The tax measure was teed up for a vote in the Senate when Delta made its NRA announcement on social media Saturday. 

The tax measure may now be destined for a return to the Senate Finance Committee, where the tax break could be stripped and set aside as a separate bill.

Sen. Chuck Payne, R-Dalton, who sits on the Senate Finance Committee, said he is troubled by Delta’s decision, but he said that does not necessarily mean the tax break should be thrown out. 

“Something greater than politics should win at the end of the day,” said Payne, who is an NRA member. 

 

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for The Valdosta Daily Times, CNHI’s newspapers and websites.