Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit : NJ job program criticized
New Jersey’s signature tax-incentive program, designed to cluster economic growth around transit hubs, has not lived up to its promise and may contribute to “job sprawl,” researchers for the non-profit center Good Jobs First said in a report issued last week.
Researchers looked into how states’ economic-development incentives have fared in targeting job growth, focusing on programs run by California, Illinois, Maryland and New Jersey.
They described New Jersey’s 2008 Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit as “noteworthy” nationwide for having a “singular focus on providing incentives to businesses making large investments accessible by transit.” But, citing what they said were a lack of safeguards in the original program rules and newly weakened rules to divert some benefits to suburban areas rather than high-traffic urban centers, the report’s authors concluded that the changes have “perverted the program so badly that it can no longer be considered smarter economic development policy.” (Fletcher, The Record)
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