There was a sliver of good news for New Jersey business owners last month, when Gov. Christie used his veto pen to strike down several measures that would have negatively impacted business. The proposals vetoed included an expansion of the state’s sales, use, and hotel/motel occupancy taxes and fees on “transient accommodations” (such as Airbnb), legislation that would have prohibited employers from requesting salary history information from prospective employees, and paid leave expansion.
“Through the power of his veto, the governor has repeatedly demonstrated over the course of both of his terms that he is committed to the small business community in the state of New Jersey,” NFIB/NJ State Director Laurie Ehlbeck said in a statement. “Unfortunately, legislators have yet to understand the repercussions that their laws could have on the productivity of businesses of all sizes. Expanding mandatory paid leave will no doubt have a detrimental impact on the job creators in a state that is just now beginning to recover from the great recession. We continue to be grateful for the governor and his leadership on issues that are most impactful on our members. However, the fact that his days in office are waning is not lost on any of us.”
While good news, these latest vetoes are a step in a long, uphill battle. According to two different state ranking reports, New Jersey came in dead last.
The first was WalletHub’s 2017 list of best and worst states to start a business. Analysts compared all 50 states on 20 metrics, such as average growth in number of small businesses, average growth of business revenues, five-year business survival rate, taxes, labor costs, availability of human capital, and financing accessibility. Scoring was done on a 100-point scale, and New Jersey earned 34.54 points and 50th overall. In business environment, New Jersey scored 39th; in access to resources, 20th; and in business costs, 50th.
Second was Mercatus Center’s 2017 State Fiscal Condition report, which also ranked New Jersey 50th for financial health. The worst factor is the state’s long-run solvency, thanks to issues like unfunded pension liability, but New Jersey also ranked 49th for budget solvency, 37th for short-term cash solvency, and 39th for trust fund solvency.
New Jersey’s next governor has a lot of work to do.
