New Jersey's Economic Crisis

Members of the New Jersey Legislature met in a special session yesterday to discuss ways to provide relief to companies in order to spark the economy during these troubling times. The impression provided during the legislative session is that New Jersey became uncompetitive overnight as a result of the current economic woes plaguing the stock market and the rest of the nation’s economy.

In actuality, New Jersey's high taxes and past business policies have stifled job growth and investment in the state for quite some time. The Chamber has been warning for many years that New Jersey’s longstanding fiscal problems would multiply tenfold should a major national economic crisis occur. All indications are that that day has arrived and now our elected officials are scrambling to make some adjustments and undue policies that have resulted in us placing last or close to the bottom in almost every competitiveness poll.

We are pleased that some of the corporate business taxes implemented in 2002 might finally be repealed. It is unfortunate that it took a major crisis for some of these onerous policies to finally be reviewed and hopefully changed.

Click here to read more about the chamber's activities to reform the tax policies of New Jersey.