What Can Be Done about NJ’s Tax Rates?

“New Jersey’s got a lot going for it, including easy access to the nation’s largest markets, a great education system and a diverse population. But will the state’s high tax burdens derail efforts to improve economic activity here? Some participants on the Chamber Business Summit’s ‘Taxes and Incentives’ panel shared their thoughts with NJBIZ.”

The article later continues, “Sills Cummis & Gross Member Ted Zangari, who will also sit on the Taxes and Incentives panel, pointed out that, ‘To attract and retain businesses in the modern era, New Jersey needs to remain competitive with our neighboring states in the region. We can’t afford huge incentive packages to compete with sunbelt or midwestern states, so if the lowest cost state wins the day that’s OK — we’ll get our fair share of companies willing to accept a more modest incentives package that requires the company to pay a slight premium to locate in New Jersey, because that company sees the virtues of doing business here.’

“But to get to that point, ‘We may need to recalibrate the “Emerge” incentive program, especially to reflect the work from home dynamic and other realities of a post-pandemic world,’ he cautioned. ‘The best suggestion is quite simple: New Jersey policymakers should strive to keep and reduce all of the state’s tax rates — for businesses and individuals—at or below the tax rates of states all around us. And if we can manage it fiscally, to really break-out from the regional pack, we should strive to eliminate certain taxes, ideally the corporate business tax, and to put certainty around other taxes by use of automatic, formulaic increases and automatic sunsets.’

“Early in his years as mayor of New York City, ‘Mike Bloomberg told New Yorkers that the higher cost of living in the region was a fact of life, that they should be resigned to having to pay a premium for living and working in one of the world’s great metropolises,’ concluded Zangari. ‘He’s right—except that we cannot allow that premium to become a super-premium because that’s the tipping point at which many more people and businesses will migrate away from the region.’”