AllianceBernstein, a money management firm given $17.5 million in tax breaks and incentives to relocate its headquarters to Nashville, has already begun to push New York City style policies at the state’s legislature.
The Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development announced in May of 2018 that AllianceBernstein would its corporate headquarters from Manhattan to Nashville. The move is set to happen in 2020 and is supposed to bring 1,050 jobs to Nashville, but the company is already inserting itself into local politics.
This week, The COO of Alliance Bernstein and several LGBTQ organizations came in opposition to three bills they allege discriminates against LGBTQ individuals.
“AB chose to move to Tennessee because we believe it is a welcoming state that is focused on growing jobs, incomes and the tax base, which will improve lives for all Tennesseans,” AllianceBernstein COO Jim Gingrich said in a statement.
“We believe strongly in the need for continued investments in education, safety, infrastructure for all,” Gingrich said. “The bills being debated in the current session of the legislature send a clear message to certain constituencies that they are not welcome.”
The bills being opposed by AllianceBernstein include a public indecency law, an adoptions law, and protections for a business’ internal discrimination or employment policies.
House Bill 1151 is a bill outlining indecent exposure in a public place and includes language that psychological disorders such as gender dysphoria or gender confusion “will not serve as a defense to the offense of indecent exposure.”
House Bill 1152 protects adoption agencies with religious affiliations from being forced to place children with anyone in conflict with the sincerely held religious beliefs of that agency. In order to qualify for the protection, the agency must issue and display in public a written policy or statement of faith about their practices.
House Bill 0563 protects businesses from municipalities creating policies or ordinances that are discriminatory against a business based on the policies of the business. The areas under protection must be in compliance with state and federal statutes or regulations and include Health insurance policies/coverage, family leave policies, minimum wage policies, and anti-discrimination policies.
The corporate activism and pushback such as that of AllianceBernstein should come as no surprise.
The company’s website prominently displays its “Diversity and Inclusion Strategy,” a list of ‘diversity’ partners and badges from the Human Rights Campaign for CEO activism and for earning a 100% rating three years in a row on the Human Right’s Campaign’s “Corporate Equality Index.”
The Human Rights Campaign has led economic blackmail campaigns in states where religious freedom bills have been introduced. Most notably, the Human Rights Campaign enlisted businesses, politicians, and CEO’s from various companies and to pressure North Carolina over House Bill 2.
The bill, known as HB2, was labeled ‘anti-LGBT’, however, in reality, it restored previous laws and rolled back an ordinance which outlawed gender-specific facilities for all public and private businesses inside the Charlotte city limits. The Human Rights Campaign was instrumental in the creation of that Charlotte ordinance.
Curiously, the city of Charlotte had apparently offered $30 million in incentives and was a runner-up for AllianceBernstein’s new headquarters yet the company chose Nashville.
Media estimated potential revenue losses from HB2 to be over $3 billion, but $500 million seemed to be the most accurate, realistic figure. For perspective, that potential $500 million is around .01% of North Carolina’s annual $510 billion gross domestic product. Contrary to the media reporting at the time, there was a record increase in tourism dollars in all 100 counties in the Tarheel state.
HB2 was eventually repealed by House Bill 142, which has a similarity to Tennessee’s House Bill 0563, in that it placed a moratorium on municipality ordinance creation until December of 2020.
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A.P. Dillon is the North Carolina Bureau Chief for The Tennesee Star and a reporter at Battleground State News. Follow A.P. Dillon on Twitter. Email Tips to [email protected].
Photo “John Ragan” by John Ragan. Photo “Jason Zachary” by Jason Zachary. Background Photo “AllianceBernstein” by Alliance Bernstein.
Left the Sunshine State and now the liberal idiocy is arriving here too.
This is the result of Nashville being touted and sold as a “Progressive City”…taken over by Hipsters and Yankee/CA libs who moved to a better place and NOW want to turn US into what they left! NO NO…
Somebody needs to get to them and let them know this is NOT the way things are done here. And if they want to lobby, the Leg will get involved in looking at every little detail of their business.
Revoke incentives. Get them out of here. These folks are an out side lobbying organization for Socialism and worse. Go to their website and look. Disgusting.
I see nothing offensive in those bills. AllianceBernstein appears to be a Trojan horse. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. I agree with Melinda, my wife and I moved to Tennessee to seek political asylum from the Socialist Republic of Vermont. Liberalism/Socialism has destroyed Vermont like it does all states that embrace it. It will strip you of your constitutional rights under the guise of the “common good”. Liberalism and Socialism are the scourge of the earth. You don’t have to look any further than Nashville to see the results.
Go back to New York.
We came to Tennessee to escape this liberal lunacy. It’s like a cancer spreading across the land. We must continue to fight this agenda or we will lose everything this nation has worked to achieve. These Marxist liberals are a disease and are anti-Christian, and anti-American. STOP being lured by the siren song of “new jobs.” It’s an evil trick.
Time to start writing the COO and let them know Tennessee is a welcoming state right up to the point where you start to use your company as leverage to push a radical liberal agenda! Stay the hell in Manhattan or stay out of Tennessee politics. Your move…
Great suggestion Melinda. I just sent an e-mail to the secretary of AllianceBernstein to tell him/her that I foresee a most unpleasant future for AB in this state if its management is coming down here to attempt to impose political correctness so that Tennessee becomes like the NYC that AB is running away from. I politely suggested that AB stay in NYC or move somewhere else.
Your company and your policies are not welcome here, jerks! BYE!
Revoke the $17.5 million in tax breaks and incentives and they can lobby all they want. Good reporting!
If I wanted to live in New York, I would have moved there.
This is yet another downside to the growth at any cost agenda that the political establishment of this state is determined to follow. Attracting corporations from up north and California often bring with it management as concerned with political correctness as it is with making a profit. It also brings with it an indeterminate number transplanted employees who instead of being thankful that they finally getting out of the hell holes of taxation and government regulations like New York City are determined through their voting habits to impose those same conditions here as soon as possible. Conservatives of Tennessee must simply counter this by stepping up our efforts to fight the spread of the pathologies of liberalism wherever and as soon as it appears.
Encouraging migration, personal or financial, carries with it a dangerous risk. As soon as they arrive, they want to “Californicate” their new location.