Government
Report to Members By Michele N. Siekerka, NJBIA President and CEO On Nov 25, 2024
NJBIA’s Annual Business Outlook Survey not only tells us how you – the true boots on the ground for New Jersey businesses – are feeling at the moment, but it also helps us to inform our policymakers on how they can help improve the business climate.
Certainly, they can learn a lot from the 2025 Business Outlook Survey featured on pages 20-26.
Not surprisingly, the needs and wants of New Jersey business owners almost exactly mirror the policies we’ve been fighting for in recent years.
For starters, we asked what actions you’d like to see from the next New Jersey governor, who will be elected less than a year from now.
Two of the three top answers included property tax relief and a lowering of the corporate business tax.
Well, we’ve certainly been strongly advocating for property tax relief, especially since our businesses pay nearly half of the property taxes in the state annually. Yet they have been excluded from programs like ANCHOR and Stay NJ.
Of course, we fought tooth and nail to stop Gov. Phil Murphy from reneging on a previous commitment to lower the CBT. Unfortunately, he still returned it to the highest rate in the nation.
Many small businesses called for the lowering of the corporate business tax in this survey, which justifies why we fought so hard for it. They know, as we’ve always said, the negative impacts of a high CBT that trickles down to smaller employers.
We fought for an NJBIA-led bill that would have created the Government Efficiency and Regulatory Review (GEARR) Commission. It would have identified and addressed costly government efficiencies and red tape.
Yet despite unanimous approval in the Legislature, Gov. Murphy still vetoed it.
We at NJBIA, however, are optimistic this bill will get a second chance in 2025 as we hear from both sides of the aisle that it’s a no-brainer for New Jersey’s business community.
With this data now in hand, we will continue to make sure it reaches the eyes and ears of our policymakers to help bring much-needed improvement to our business climate. And, as always, we thank you for your valuable feedback.
To access more business news, visit NJB News Now.
Related Articles: