Michele Siekerka, NJBIA President & CEO
With New Jersey’s FY2019 budget drama over and higher taxes for small and large job creators set for another year, NJBIA President and CEO Michele N. Siekerka, Esq. says in an Op-Ed in the Asbury Park Press that the time is now for policymakers to address spending and comprehensive tax reform.
“With true planning and a commitment to stop the unsustainable practice of taxing our way out of our structural deficits, our policymakers can avoid the 11th hour budget crisis and put into motion a long-term vision for our great state,” she writes. “The lens through which this planning should occur is one of regional competitiveness and affordability. New Jersey should no longer be an outlier for business climate rankings and trends. We can do better and we must.”
During budget testimony, NJBIA shared stories of New Jersey business owners who were being advised to move to Pennsylvania due to the high-cost of doing business in the Garden State.
Siekerka reiterated that without addressing pension and healthcare deficits through structural reforms, New Jersey will continue to be less competitive in the region and in the nation.
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When people around me of modest means are considering moving their businesses across the Delaware, you know they are cutting their own throats with higher and higher taxes. Someone is going to have to be the adult in the room and decide how to cut spending. I know throwing around other people’s money buys votes, but this is reaching a critical point.
With all due respect NJBIA would have more authority on this issue if they had not supported the massive gas tax increase. NJBIA and the NJ Chamber of Commerce gave the Trenton politicians the political cover and nod from big business to raise the gas tax. For those that counter that it was a fair trade for lower taxes in other areas, it is only a matter of time before those taxes come back to life. Witness the urge to increase the sales tax as part of the last budget, even though the Democrats blinked at the last minute. Trenton does have a spending problem, give them the cover to tax specific needs after years of neglect does nothing to solve the problem and only encourages them to overspend.