New Jersey Chamber of Commerce President Tom Bracken released the following statement today in response to Governor Phil Murphy’s Budget Address:

Gov. Phil Murphy today presented a broad and aggressive agenda which clearly follows through on his campaign commitments which he believes will make New Jersey’s economy stronger and fairer.

We agree with a number of the initiatives the governor identified in his speech as critical to our state’s economic health, including strong support for education and workforce development, and a robust funding of infrastructure projects, NJ Transit and the innovation economy.

We also believe it is a positive step to review state incentive programs and consider expanding them to a greater segment of the business community.

Gov. Murphy proposed a number of new funding sources for his agenda, including an increase in taxes, many impacting businesses of all sizes, including some Sub S businesses which would be subject to the proposed millionaire’s tax.

All of his funding proposals need to be fully vetted and analyzed in the context of keeping New Jersey competitive and affordable, otherwise we cannot reverse the outmigration of businesses and workers, which has hampered New Jersey’s economy for too long.

We need to see and understand the details in order to assess how these funding proposals can generate economic growth.

In these discussions, we need to remember that our corporate business tax collections are currently lagging behind projections and our job growth trails competitor states.

The New Jersey Chamber of Commerce is committed to working with both the new administration and the state Legislature to grow our economy and create jobs, because there is no better way to achieve a stronger, fairer economy than to create jobs.