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Chris Emigholz

Christopher Emigholz, NJBIA Vice President of Government Affairs

Once again, I want to start by saying that I hope you, your families and your business colleagues are staying as healthy and safe as possible during this pandemic with which we are all struggling. I hope to be able to see many of you soon at NJBIA meetings, the State House and/or anywhere out and about fighting for good pro-business tax and economic development policy.

Businesses, and anyone concerned about the potential of tax hikes, more debt and spending cuts, have been anxiously waiting for more details about how devastating the impact of the COVID-19 crisis has been on state revenues. Information on that fiscal devastation started to surface last week, and NJBIA’s analysis can be found here.

On the New Jersey Division of Taxation’s website, you can see the new CBT Special Adoption Regulations that were finalized and published in the NJ Register in early May. The new regulations, which track recent guidance for the most part, provide direction on GILTI, FDII and other aspects of CBT. The link to those regulations and other information on the recent CBT changes can be seen at the Taxation’s  webpage devoted to the 2018 CBT reform.  Taxation also has a good webpage with COVID-19 resources for taxpayers.

After last Thursday’s voting sessions in both houses of the Legislature, several bills with tax, budget and economic development ramifications are on the Governor’s desk. Hopefully these bills are signed soon:

  • A-3919 – Calabrese (D36); Spearman (D5); Murphy (D7); Sarlo (D36); Sweeney (D3); Singleton (D7); Bucco (R25) – Extends certain permits, approvals, and deadlines during COVID-19 emergency. NJBIA supports this bill because it is important for future economic development to extend development permit expiration dates given the delays caused by the COVID-19 emergency.
  • A-3959 – Mukherji (D33); Vainieri Huttle (D37); Reynolds-Jackson (D15); Gopal (D11); O’Scanlon (R13) – Establishes NJ Hospitality Emergency Loan Program in EDA to provide no-interest loans to qualified small hospitality businesses; makes $100 million appropriation to EDA from federal funds for certain small business assistance. NJBIA supports this bill because we have been asking for greater EDA funding to help businesses devastated by COVID-19, and NJBIA was happy to see the bill amended to increase the appropriation by using the Federal CARES Act state aid. Appropriating more money from the Federal funds to the EDA is also a recommendation from the New Jersey Business Coalition that NJBIA formed.
  • A-4132 – Taliaferro (D3); Downey (D11); Sweeney (D3); Pou (D35); Oroho (R24) – Implements Senate President Sweeney’s furlough plan for public employees. NJBIA supports this bill because we appreciate the pursuit of state budget savings in this difficult economy, and we were pleased to see the unnecessary family leave mandate on small businesses removed from the bill.
  • A-4157 – Mukherji (D33); Johnson (D37); Sarlo (D36); Cryan (D20) – Extends time period for filing and processing certain property tax appeals in 2020. NJBIA supports this legislation because it will give businesses more time to research property values and file their appeals, and it seems consistent with the tax deadline extension and what the Tax Court has been saying.

Beyond legislative action, the EDA continues to provide business relief during this pandemic, and NJBIA will keep you updated on their actions as well since they are having a special meeting Friday, May 22, to expand upon the programs they initially created to support businesses struggling due to the lockdown.

I also wanted to point out the NJBIA website pages dedicated to helping businesses through COVID-19. At the recovery-focused page, you can see the recovery framework that was sent to policymakers from the Business Coalition that NJBIA has worked with to advocate for businesses during this pandemic.. At https://njbia.org/coronavirus/, you can see a list of the business resources NJBIA compiled to try to assist employers in getting through this unprecedented public health crisis.

Lastly, I wanted to make sure you all saw the invitation to next week’s virtual NJBIA/State Chamber Joint Taxation & Economic Development Policy Committee. The meeting will be a Zoom video conference on Wednesday, May 27 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Assembly Budget Chairwoman Pintor Marin is joining us to talk about the upcoming and unique three- month appropriations bill and nine-month FY21 State Budget. I also look forward to an interesting discussion with all of you on the difficult fiscal policies taxpayers may face over the coming months in response to the COVID-19 revenue shortfalls. I look forward to seeing you all through my computer screen at this meeting, so please register here.

Please email me at cemigholz@njbia.org if you have any questions or want to weigh in on NJBIA’s advocacy on any of the above.

Thank you and I look forward to working with you to continue to help your business in these challenging times.

–Christopher Emigholz – NJBIA, Vice President of Government Affairs

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