SMALL BUSINESS TO SENATORS: YOU CAN DO BETTER
TRENTON (July 29, 2016): The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) continues to be adamantly opposed to a dramatic increase in the gas tax. Today, Senators throughout the state are hearing directly from NFIB New Jersey state director, Laurie Ehlbeck. Laurie submitted a letter to the Senate that stated:
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)New Jersey which represents thousands of small businesses adamantly opposes A12 and S2411. Although it adjusts various state taxes in New Jersey including the Estate Tax, the fact that it includes an unprecedented 23 cent per gallon gas tax hike is unacceptable to our members.
While we are certainly happy to see the proposed tax changes in the legislation that include phasing out the estate tax, we have to wonder why there is a slow phase-out instead of a complete repeal. This legislation does nothing to combat fears that as 2020 approaches, a new bill will appear that halts the full estate tax repeal prior to its implementation and in fact Speaker Prieto recently publically disclosed that he was not confident future tax adjustments would be realistic.
New Jersey is currently one of only two states in the country with both an estate and an inheritance tax. As usual, we lag behind the rest of the nation but instead of correcting this onerous tax, it has been included as a tradeoff to increase the gas tax. This strikes at the very heart of the problem that has led to NJ being ranked as the worst state for business climate in the nation, legislatively we take one step forward, then two steps back.
The long-term tax benefits proposed in this legislation, if they were to ever even come to fruition, are vastly overshadowed by the immediate harm doubling the gas tax will cause to the small business community. Once again, our main street businesses will be negatively impacted and left to compensate for bad legislative and regulatory decisions.
I don’t say that lightly, or without merit. In fact an astonishing 93% of the members that responded to our most recent poll about this bill were opposed to it, regardless of the tax breaks. NFIB, unlike other business organizations, ballots their members on key issues to determine the type of stance to take on new policy initiatives. With thousands of members in New Jersey, at times the membership can appear divided on which direction the state should go in. This bill was certainly not one of those times.
We’ve been advocating for the types of tax reform included in this bill for a long time, and when we balloted our members, I wondered if the tradeoff would be worth it for them. I was overwhelmed with the response that we received and cannot remember when the last time an issue garnered this much feedback from our members. When this many respondents are opposed to a bill, it tells you that something is very wrong. We have heard from restaurateurs, transportation companies and those in the tourism industry about the detrimental impact that doubling the gas tax will have on their small businesses.
NFIB is unequivocally and unapologetically opposed to the astronomical increase regardless of what else is included in the bill. What proponents of the legislation are failing to understand is that they are creating more problems for the small business community than they are solving. New Jersey’s small businesses are already struggling to keep their doors open. A higher gas tax means higher prices not just on gas, but on goods and services throughout the economy. These increased costs would inevitably be passed down to consumers, resulting in a regressive tax hike on middle and lower income New Jerseyans.
We implore everyone to go back to the drawing board and do the real work of fixing the systemic problems within our state tax code and our infrastructure improvement costs without placing the burden on the backs of small business owners by increasing taxes of any kind.
Quite frankly, lawmakers can do better than this. Produce a bill that stabilizes the transportation trust fund and focuses on the long term economic health of the small business community in our state and we will be your strongest advocate. Until then, the National Federation of Independent Business remains not only opposed, but profoundly disappointed in legislators willing to support this economic shell game.
