Four legislative leaders from North Jersey debated Governor Jon Corzine's proposed budget at the third NJBIA Meet the Legislative Leaders event, held April 7 at the Doubletree Hotel Newark Airport in Elizabeth . Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny, Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Wilfredo Caraballo, Senate Republican Whip Tom Kean and Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce took questions for an hour during a panel discussion before 100 business people. NJBIA Vice President Frank Robinson moderated the discussion.
Kenny and Caraballo stated that Corzine's budget was remarkably probusiness, given the tremendous financial strain facing the State. It does not suspend net-operating-loss (NOL) deductions and does not extend the alternative minimum assessment (AMA), which taxes a company's gross receipts, beyond July 1. “Add in the UI fund and the S Corporations, and that's $1.1 billion (in tax savings), all on the business side of the ledger,” Kenny said. (Corzine's proposed budget proposes a continued phase-out of double taxation of S corporations and no diversions from the Unemployment Insurance or UI fund.) NJBIA supports all four budget provisions.
For DeCroce and Kean, however, Corzine's proposed budget still spends too much, and DeCroce said the business community should not count on any tax savings yet. “I wouldn't bet on anything” when it comes to the AMA and NOL deductions, DeCroce said. “As far as I'm concerned, this budget is up in the air.”
Kean noted that the proposed budget includes $3 billion in new spending, a 10 percent increase over current levels, even as proponents say the budget is being cut. “Every time the budget gets scrubbed, taxes and spending get increased,” Kean said. But Caraballo said most of the spending increases were mandatory, coming from court mandates on education funding and contractual health insurance and pension commitments. “If we did nothing, if Governor Corzine did not spend one new cent, the budget would have to be increased by $1.9 billion,” Caraballo said.
DeCroce, however, said there were still plenty of opportunities to cut the budget. He said that he has already submitted a list of spending cuts that would save taxpayers $700 million. “We don't have a revenue problem in New Jersey , we have a spending problem.” But Kenny said that programs still needed to be funded, and that the money had to come from somewhere. “The bottom line is it's arithmetic,” Kenny said. “You have to have revenues to fund expenses.”
The Northern New Jersey Meet the Legislative Leaders event was sponsored by AT&T, Comcast, Fidelity Investments, Jersey Central Power & Light (a First Energy Company), MyWireless.org, NJM Insurance Group, United Water, and Verizon.
Key Corzine Advisors Tell Business Leaders This Governor's Office Will Be Different—This Administration will do things differently, three key advisors from Governor Jon Corzine's inner circle told 150 business leaders on April 12. Corzine Chief of Staff Tom Shea, Policy Counsel Heather Howard and Deputy Chief of Staff Maggie Moran said everything from the way the office is structured to the way Corzine himself went about fashioning his first budget proposal represents a break from past practices. For starters, there is no hierarchy amongst the Governor's staff. Shea described it as a team where any one of the six key staffers (the three panelists, plus Counsel Stuart Rabner and Deputy Chiefs of Staff Jeannine LaRue and Patti McGuire) is “a legitimate point of entry.” Part of the reason, he said, is that Jon Corzine is a unique individual. “He's probably one of the few Governors who has actually run something as big as State government in his previous life.”
The three advisors stressed that Corzine was serious about growing the economy and that economic development would play an ongoing and prominent role in the Governor's agenda. It's demonstrated in the budget, where the alternative minimum assessment and the suspension of net-operating-loss deductions were left out, they said. Both provisions have cost businesses hundreds of millions of dollars a year in taxes. “Phase-out of some of the corporate taxes, we think, is essential, if we are going to grow our way out of this problem,” Shea said. After the budget is settled (the deadline is July 1, the end of the State's fiscal year), Shea said the Governor's office would create a working group with business to find ways of attracting new jobs in key industries. He emphasized that it would not be an advisory panel, but a group that “will be able to turn ideas into action” quickly.
The April 12 Meet the Decision Makers was sponsored by AT&T, the Healthcare Payers Coalition of New Jersey, Jersey Central Power & Light (a First Energy Corporation), NJM Insurance Group, and Verizon.
New Economic Growth Chief Rose, Commerce Secretary Bauer, EDA CEO Franzini Headline April 21 Meet the Decision Makers —When a new Governor is elected, a whole new group of players comes to Trenton . At NJBIA's Meet the Decision Makers breakfasts, you can get to know the key members of Governor Jon Corzine's cabinet and staff. Each breakfast will begin with registration at 7:45 a.m. and be held at Forsgate Country Club, Monroe Township , just off of Turnpike exit 8A . The cost to attend each breakfast is $69 per person for NJBIA members and $105 for nonmembers. For more information, contact Stacy Wichner at 609-393-7707, ext. 213. To become a sponsor and receive maximum recognition, contact Sherry Esteves at ext. 219. The events are:
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