By Brent Johnson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on November 23, 2016 at 6:30 AM, updated November 24, 2016 at 12:19 AM
TRENTON — After seeing the state’s unemployment rate shrink significantly last year, New Jersey’s economy is expected to slow down over the next decade, according to predictions in the latest economic forecast from Rutgers University.
Meanwhile, the United States as a whole faces economic uncertainty as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, the report from the Rutgers Economic Advisory Service says.
The report predicts the Garden State will experience a “weaker-looking” economy through 2026, one that includes a leveling off of its unemployment rate. Meanwhile, the state’s real domestic product is likely to suffer and its population growth to sputter.
Posted by Laurie Ehlbeck On March 01, 2016 2 Comments
By Laurie Ehlbeck
We haven’t even made it out of the first quarter of 2016 but there is already plenty for small businesses in New Jersey to be concerned about on the upcoming legislative calendar. Senator Sweeney and Speaker Prieto seem determined to continue to challenge the economic stability of our state by introducing bills to nearly double minimum wage, mandate all employers provide sick leave and attempt to convince the voters that a pension payment must be constitutionally required. Sweeney and Prieto are creating what may ultimately amount to the most hostile session in state history in terms of damage caused to the small business community.
When it comes to minimum wage it is imperative that as a society we are honest about what it truly is. Minimum wage is not now, nor has it ever been, a vehicle in which to feed a family 4. It is an entry level wage that is earned almost exclusively by teens and young adults seeking work experience and a smooth transition into a career. Raising the minimum wage again, especially to the rate of $15 will have one direct effect. It will result in a loss of job opportunities for those seeking to expand their skill sets. It will not alleviate poverty. It will not empower the middle class. It will leave teenagers wondering what to do after school.
According to a recent study, 63 percent of workers who earn less than $9.50 per hour are the second or third earner in their family and 43 percent of these workers live in households that earn over $50,000 per year. In spite of what the proponents would have you believe, minimum wage earners are not an impoverished, disenfranchised group of struggling single mothers just trying to make ends meet. Most are teenagers from middle class families and many more are sharing the responsibility of providing for their families, not breaking under the burden of putting food on the table.
By Eric Boehm / January 20, 2016 / News / 25 Comments
Just days ahead of an expected blizzard on the East Coast, New Jersey has officially repealed a nonsensical rule banning the shoveling of snow without a license.
SNOW JOB: Police in Bound Brook, N.J., told two boys, Matt Molinari and Eric Schnepf, they were not allowed to shovel their neighbors’ driveways without a permit. A new state law puts the boys on the right side of the law, and common sense.
Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday signed a bill making it legal for New Jersey residents to offer snow shoveling services without first registering with their town. Last year, two entrepreneurial teens going door-to-door and offering to shovel snow for a small fee were stopped by local police in Bound Brook.
The cops told the two boys, Matt Molinari and Eric Schnepf, they were not allowed to solicit businesses without a permit.
In Bound Brook, that license costs $450 and is only good for a period of 180 days.
After the story made national headlines — including here at Watchdog, where it was featured as our “Nanny State of the Week” story — state lawmakers began working on a solution.
State Sen. Mike Doherty, R-Washington, who sponsored the so-called “right-to-shovel” bill, said it was incredible that some towns wanted teens to pay expensive licensing fees just to clear snow off driveways.
DOHERTY: State Sen. Mike Doherty says government red tape shouldn’t stop kids from making a few bucks by shoveling snow.
“This new law sends the message that kids looking to make a few bucks on a snow day shouldn’t be subjected to government red tape or fined for shoveling snow,” Doherty said.
The bill removes only licensing requirements for snow shoveling services, and only applies to solicitations made within 24 hours before a predicted snow storm. Towns with laws prohibiting door-to-door solicitation will be able to enforce those laws in all other circumstances.
The bill was one of 93 signed by Christie this week, according to the governor’s office. He also vetoed 65 bills.
The governor’s signature comes just in time. Parts of New Jersey could see more than a foot of snow this week as a powerful storm takes aim at the East Coast.
In Bound Brook, there’s no word on whether Molinari and Schnepf are planning to offer their shoveling services again.
If they do, though, they will be on the right side of the law — and common sense.
“It takes a certain kind of stupidity to find yourself ranked dead last” Reader
New Jersey’s high property and income taxes contribute to its standing as the nation’s least attractive tax climate for businesses, according to a Washington tax policy group’s annual ranking of the 50 states. Samantha Marcus, NJ.com Read more
TAX CREDITS: TOO HIGH A PRICE TO ATTRACT COMPANIES, KEEP THEM IN NEW JERSEY?
OCTOBER 26, 2015
JOHN REITMEYER
Companies and critics explore the pros and cons — and costs — of incentives used to convince corporations not to move out of state
When Panasonic was seeking a new location for its corporate headquarters after four decades in Secaucus, moving to downtown Newark was not the original plan, according to chief executive officer Joe Taylor.
Offices in San Diego, Chicago, and Atlanta were all under consideration, but after intense lobbying from politicians here — and the enticement of an $80 million state economic-development tax incentive — Taylor decided to keep the company and its 1,000 employees in New Jersey, choosing to relocate in downtown Newark.
Now, Taylor said 60 percent of the company’s employees are taking the train to work, meaning their cars are off New Jersey’s already choked and potholed highways. Panasonic also has an agreement with city government to give local residents a first crack at job openings.
“I’m a huge proponent of economic development,” Taylor said while participating in a panel discussion during NJ Spotlight on Cities, a daylong conference held earlier this month at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark that focused on the state of New Jersey’s cities.
“I think tax credits are critically important,” he said. “I think other kinds of credits are critically important.”
NJ’s annual job growth slow, with some bright spots
JANUARY 23, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
* State’s growth trails well behind nation’s
Four years after New Jersey reached its post-recession employment low, figures released Thursday show the state’s economic recovery continues to be slow.
The state added a modest 29,000 jobs in 2014, leaving employment far below its pre-recession peak and lower even than the level 14 years ago, according to the monthly employment report released by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
The report showed New Jersey shed 400 jobs last month, even as national employment forged ahead strongly, adding 252,000 jobs in December. And although the state’s jobless rate dropped from 6.4 percent to 6.2 percent, it remains above the national figure of 5.6 percent.
The report, nevertheless, contained some positive elements, including the fact that the state added more jobs in 2014 than the previous year, despite the loss of thousands of casino jobs in Atlantic City, a very harsh winter and the lingering effects of Superstorm Sandy.
“It was a sustained, moderate pace of growth,” said Patrick O’Keefe, director of economic research at the accounting firm CohnReznick.
Yudin strikes back at Stellato over Izod Center closure vote
Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin ,” the blame for the Izod Center closure on “failed Democratic policies”
After getting shellacked by Bergen County Democratic Chairman Lou Stellato for his January 15 vote to close the Izod Center at the Meadowlands Complex in his capacity as a board commissioner of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin struck back at Stellato, laying the blame for the Izod Center closure on both circumstances and “failed Democratic policies.” (Bonamo/PolitickerNJ)
Reader says The taxes and mandates placed upon private enterprise make doing business in NJ uncompetitive with other states
As a business owner in the private sector, let me add to it from that perspective.
The taxes and mandates placed upon private enterprise make doing business in NJ uncompetitive with other states.
The foolish Democrats that control Trenton kill the economy here every time they pass another law with the stroke of a pen.
Nobody ‘mandates’ that private enterprise make a profit (which is taxed), yet the morons who are elected from the big cities (Newark, Camden, Paterson etc) that milk the funds from the state treasury continue to pass rules that hurt businesses.
Many businesses will never expand here, and move new operations to more ‘tax friendly’/’regulation friendly’ states.
No large business would ever consider moving here.
The state is broke due to ‘obligations’ to the unions as mentioned in the previous post.
Further draining the state treasury are the billions of dollars that get flushed down the toilet in the “Abbot’ school districts (thanks to the left wing activist NJ supreme court).
It should come as no surprise that the ‘big earners’ make sure they do their ‘time’ out of state….spend 181 days per year in FLA and vote there… so NJ can no longer pick their pockets… and the rest of us will have to make up the difference in higher taxes..
Try to explain logic such as that to the Dumbocrats in Trenton… good luck.
