3 Bills Signed to Boost State’s 21st Century Economy

By Anthony Birritteri, Editor-in-Chief On Jul 6, 2023

Gov. Phil Murphy today signed three bills that are geared toward boosting both the state’s offshore wind and film/digital media industries, while also bringing more commercial and housing developments to under-resourced communities in the state.

At EEW American Offshore Structures’ Paulsboro Marine Terminal, the governor said the bills “will provide a significant and long-lasting boost to our 21st century economy. We are creating the jobs of the future right now.”

Murphy said the first bill (A5651/S4019) allows Ørsted’s Ocean Wind 1 offshore wind project to move forward by tapping into federal tax credits specifically designated to help the industry. The governor added that the bill will also trigger an additional $200 million of private-sector investment in related manufacturing facilities in the state.

“I cannot emphasize this enough,” Murphy said. “We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring tens of thousands of overwhelmingly union jobs and billions of dollars of investment to our state with offshore wind.”

Pointing to the large monopiles at the EEW American Offshore Structures facility, the governor said, “A tremendous amount of labor goes into [building] each [monopile], and that means … good paying union jobs [at] facilities like this and at our New Jersey Wind Port in Salem County. New Jersey is literally building the foundation for our nation’s entire wind industry. This bill will allow these projects to expand and create even more jobs.”

The second bill (A5393/S3748) appropriates $30 million to bolster the state’s existing tax credit program for film and digital media content production.

This bill “makes our film and digital media tax credit program even more attractive so that New Jersey will now be the first place people look to film,” Murphy said, adding that it builds on the work his administration has already accomplished in supporting the industry.

“In 2017, the year before we got here, our state had $67 million in [film] production spending. Fast forward to last year and we hit $650 million in production spending, which is nearly a tenfold increase in five years,” the governor said.

“We put about $100 million on the street in terms of tax incentives last year and in return for that, we got $650 million in production. That is a good trade that we should make every day,” Murphy said, adding that the increased production led to the creation of 8,500 new jobs last year.

“These numbers will look better once the major studios finish building their production facilities in Monmouth, Essex, Hudson and Middlesex counties at a minimum,” Murphy said. “The film industry was invented in Fort Lee. We used to be it! We used to be Hollywood East and we are again. In fact, Hollywood is going to envy New Jersey.”

The final bill signed today (A5644/S4023) revises the Aspire program. Part of the New Jersey Economic Recovery Act of 2020, the program helps bring new commercial and housing developments to under-resourced communities by helping them finance projects that would otherwise not be economically feasible for developers, Murphy said. “This bill will help get even more projects across the finish line by addressing some of the challenges that emerged after we introduced the program, like inflation and supply chain disruptions. Not only will this bill create jobs, but it will bring more affordable housing to where it’s needed,” Murphy said.

“Each of these bills are significant in their own right, but I don’t want people to lose sight of the bigger picture,” Murphy said. “Together, these bills put New Jersey on the forefront of the 21st century economy and create a steady pipeline of good jobs and opportunities well into the future.”

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