Gov. Phil Murphy and the Legislature delivered a stinging blow to the business community over the summer by enacting a retroactive increase in the Corporation Business Tax, requiring New Jersey’s largest companies to pay the highest corporate tax (11.5%) in the nation.
We were told the $1 billion corporate tax hike was needed to bail out NJ TRANSIT, yet just a month later the governor proposed giving all bus and train riders a week of free rides that would cost the cash-strapped agency an estimated $19 million. This tone-deaf “fare holiday,” coming just a few weeks after the business tax hike, only rubbed salt in the proverbial wound.
The time has come for a reset – a fresh start to rebuild trust between the business community and our elected officials. We have opportunities in the next 13 months, before the 2025 New Jersey gubernatorial and legislative elections, to do better for business by working together on numerous initiatives that will create jobs, grow businesses, and improve our future workforce.
Doing better for business can start with reforming the state budget process. All state budgets should include spending and revenue projections five years into the future because better long-term planning will produce sounder annual budgets that do not need to resort to broken promises and retroactive business tax increases.
For the sake of transparency, the Legislature should also be required to introduce its budget by May 15 every year so that legislative leaders and the governor’s office have a month to negotiate the final budget before the June 30 constitutional deadline.
This reform would prevent what occurred in late June when backroom negotiations with the governor’s office about his proposed budget culminated with an 11th hour budget introduction of the Legislature’s version. Budget committee members were voting on the final FY25 spending plan before printed copies were even available to the public.
Lawmakers can also do better for business by acting on the tax incentives already introduced that would spur research and development, manufacturing, and innovation. We can work together to boost apprenticeships that offer workers a path to well-paying careers and provide employers with a strong talent pipeline. Incentives for employer-provided childcare will help working parents and the businesses that employ them.
We urge our elected officials to demonstrate a commitment to do better for the business community by working with us on regulatory and legislative reforms, economic incentives and workforce development initiatives that will produce a more competitive business climate that allows job creators and the people whose livelihoods depend on them to succeed.
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