Cherry Hill—New Jersey Main Street Alliance released the following statement today in response to a state Comptroller audit finding that $11 billion in tax breaks given to mostly large corporations between 2005 and 2017 by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority have generated no known economic benefits for main street New Jersey and state taxpayers. The EDA’s corporate tax incentive program was meant to spur economic growth, attract new business and create thousands of new jobs. But the audit found the EDA has been grossly mismanaged, resulting in improperly awarded incentives, inflated and misleading job counts, and corporate tax incentive recipients taking advantage of the agency’s lack of oversight, accountability and internal controls.

“While small business owners like me struggled for years to obtain loans and secure capital, an incompetently managed state EDA gave away billions of dollars in tax breaks to enrich CEOs and corporate shareholders,” said NJMSA Steering Committee Member Kelly Conklin, owner of Foley Waite LLC in Kenilworth. “Instead of giving tax breaks to large corporations, the EDA could have invested in main street and small businesses, who would have re-invested their profits in their communities. Small business owners create more jobs and create more GDP for the economy than a company that wants tax payers to subsidize them. We call on a full investigation of the state EDA and echo Governor Murphy’s call to overhaul the agency. Our businesses and communities deserve nothing less.”