Christopher Emigholz, NJBIA Vice President of Government Affairs
Good morning! My name is Christopher Emigholz, and I am the Vice President of Government Affairs for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) covering tax, budget and economic development issues. On behalf of our member companies that collectively provide 1 million jobs in our State and make NJBIA the largest statewide business association in the nation, thank you for posting this bill and for the opportunity to express our strong support for A-4810/S-441.
On top of New Jersey’s high costs, regulatory burdens imposed by government also hurt our business climate. Over-regulation has also been oft-cited by our manufacturers in New Jersey, and this issue has been embraced by the Legislature’s bipartisan and bicameral Manufacturing Caucus. Businesses and manufacturers need an improved tax climate, innovation ecosystem, workforce development pipeline, infrastructure and regulatory environment, and reducing the regulatory burden is the only item of those five components to economic growth that does not cost the government anything. Creating the Government Efficiency and Regulatory Review (GEARR) Commission is a great way to improve the business environment in a meaningful and realistic way without further hurting New Jersey’s fiscal situation.
Additionally, the formation of a commission to review New Jersey’s regulatory structure and identify inefficiencies and overly burdensome red tape was one of the recommendations made to improve the state’s innovation economy in NJBIA’s recent Indicators of Innovation report.
Governor Christie’s Red Tape Review Commission had multiple small and large achievements, but it was never in law – only executive order. This bill would put a similar commission into statute but structure it in a way that better fits the Murphy Administration, especially with Governor Murphy’s Chief Innovation Officer coordinating it.
A-4810’s GEARR Commission would make New Jersey state government more responsive to its residents, more accessible to people and small businesses that do not always have the opportunity to impact government, and more transparent to all taxpayers. Government should be constantly improving and always striving to be leaner and more efficient for the sake of good stewardship of taxpayer dollars and better-quality service to its constituents, and a commission like this will push us in that direction.
NJBIA thanks you in advance for voting “yes” on A-4810/S-441 to create this new commission that will improve government and reduce unnecessary burdens in New Jersey.
