NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka is thanking supporters of NJBIA’s ‘Do Better for Business’ campaign, which was launched earlier this year to combat Gov. Phil Murphy’s $1 billion tax on New Jersey’s largest employers.
“While we were not able to successfully stop what we maintain is a very unfair tax that will have negative reverberations for years to come, it was clear from the strong support and understanding we received from policymakers, the business community and the general population, that we had great strength in numbers,” Siekerka said.
“These efforts did yield movement from a permanent tax to a 5-year temporary tax, at least slightly softening the overall blow caused by this increase on our largest job creators. We can only hope that this money that has now been captured goes to its intended purpose, and we will be watching closely to make sure it does.
“We are greatly appreciative of the support we received and will continue to build off it. We can and must unite to channel support of good business policy and opposition to bad business policy, in order to further strengthen the voice of business and improve our overall business climate,” Siekerka said.
Some of the results of the ‘Do Better for Business’ campaign included:
- More than 4.83 million impressions through media buys in top outlets such as Insider NJ, NJ.com. New Jersey Globe, ROI-NJ, Townsquare Media, New Jersey Business Magazine and New Jersey Business Today.
- More than 1,100 letters opposing the tax sent to legislators
- A New Jersey Business Coalition letter of more than 100 business groups sent to lawmakers opposing the tax.
- More than 40 Government Affairs meetings with lawmakers/staff informing of the tax and warning of its impacts.
- More than 300 earned media hits regarding the campaign and the business tax, including one-on-one interview spots with News 12’s Power & Politics, New Jersey Reporters Roundtable, Bill Spadea, Steve Adubato, New Jersey Business Beat, Laura Jones and others.
- Op-eds in ROI-NJ, New Jersey Globe and NJ.com.
- An NJBIA press conference with business leaders discussing ripple impacts of the tax.
- Production of Minding Your Business TV show with New Jersey’s top business leaders warning about the dangers of the tax.
- More than 60 New Jersey Business Today/Cap Memo stories relating to the campaign and the business tax.
- Nine ‘Do Better for Business’ explainer videos produced and distributed on social media, detailing the many issues with the tax and other anti-business policies in New Jersey.
- Release of infographic stating 40 reasons why the $1 billion tax is bad for business
