In his annual State of the State Address, Governor Christie called for reform to New Jersey’s estate tax, an issue NFIB/New Jersey has been strongly advocating for.
On Tuesday, January 12, the 2014/ 15 legislative session came to an end; on the same day, the organization of the 217th Legislature commenced. Any legislative action that was not completed in the 2014/15 session has expired and must be reintroduced in the new session and begin the process again. In the recently completed session over 9,000 bills were introduced to the legislature, 465 sent to the governor and 276 actually signed into law. Already, over 3,000 bills have been introduced this session. Looks like this will be a busy legislative session.
In his annual State of the State Address, Governor Christie called for reform to New Jersey’s estate tax, an issue NFIB/New Jersey has been strongly advocating for. NFIB believes that eliminating the estate tax would help improve the state’s economic climate and help keep New Jersey competitive with neighboring states. Currently, New Jersey is one of only two states that imposes both an estate tax and an inheritance tax.
In other business, the legislature failed to pass a controversial bill that would require all New Jersey employers, regardless of the number of employees, to provide paid sick leave. This bill was heatedly opposed by NFIB/NJ and other business groups in the state. We can expect to see a renewed effort by the Senate President and Assembly Speaker to present this legislation early in the current session. New research recently released by NFIB reports that a federal mandate requiring employers to offer paid leave would erase 430,000 jobs and shrink economic output by $652 billion over the next 10 years. We will continue to fight this costly benefit in New Jersey.
NFIB/New Jersey will also be fighting to stop a proposed constitutional amendment to require the state to fund the pensions of public employees on a regular basis, no matter what the circumstances of the state economy and the state budget. NFIB/NJ believes that this proposal can severely impact the state’s fiscal stability and have a negative effect on our effort to create jobs and grow our economy. This proposal was passed by both the Assembly and the Senate and must be passed again this year to go to the voters on the November ballot.
We are approaching the new year, and the new legislative session with a renewed effort to make New Jersey a friendlier place to grow a small business.
Laurie Ehlbeck
NFIB/New Jersey
State Director
