December 8, 2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Senator Kevin O’Toole (R-Bergen, Essex, Morris, Passaic) said New Jersey’s addition of 15,200 private-sector jobs in October and an updated total of 24,100 new jobs in the past two months shows that Republican reforms are working and the state’s economic rebound would be enhanced with the advancement of more Senate Republican jobs policies.
“New Jersey is creating jobs at a fast pace under Governor Christie’s administration not seen in recent memory, thanks to ample reductions in red tape and our investments in real private sector job creation, workforce training and smart economic development,” said O’Toole, a member of the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee. “Our unemployment rate has fallen nearly a full point this year to 5.4 percent, and in the months ahead we’re on track to recover all of the 258,000 jobs lost under the previous administration. Indeed, this is a far cry from what happened under the previous governors where taxes and fees were raised 115 times while the unemployment rate skyrocketed to 9.8 percent.”
O’Toole emphasized, “Not counting Great Recession years, the 15,200 private-sector jobs we created in October alone are more than twice the 7,400 private-sector jobs created in former Gov. Jon Corzine’s best year and more than six times the 2,400 jobs created in Gov. Corzine’s second-best year.”
Senator O’Toole also pushed for the continued advancement of the Senate Republican’s 36-bill package to jumpstart job creation and economic growth without costing taxpayers extra money. So far, 15 of the bills have garnered Senate Democrat sponsorship; 12 have garnered Assembly Democrat sponsorship; the Senate has advanced or fully passed 11 of them and the Assembly has advanced or passed a number of them as well, and the governor just signed into law an innovation bill to help start and grow small businesses by allowing private online investments.
“The investments and incentive programs we’ve enacted under this governor to attract and retain job creators are working, and must continue in a transparent and accountable way until legislative Democrats allow votes on bills to make New Jersey’s nation-high taxes competitive with other states,” O’Toole said. “This new state jobs report is positive and we need to continue that momentum built under Governor Christie by passing Senate Republican solutions to lower costs of doing business and cut even more red tape.”
