Why Georgia business leaders are flexing their muscles

Atlanta’s top business leaders are flexing their muscles ahead of the coming legislative session.

The Metro Atlanta Chamber, the driving force behind a failed regional transportation sales tax vote in 2012, is reviving a push for major infrastructure improvements. Some corporate giants are again opposing a “religious liberty” push they see as discriminatory. And business leaders want it known that metro Atlanta welcomes millennials and people from other countries.

The chamber has long been a bastion of fiscal conservatism, and Gov. Nathan Deal and other Republican leaders have enjoyed outspoken support from its leaders. But the group’s clout has limits, especially in a statehouse where a tea party-influenced strain of conservatism has made it difficult to back anything that would raise new revenue.