Today the state Assembly and Senate passed A-5340, which clears the way for the state to authorize at least $3 billion in corporate tax breaks for a company that comes to New Jersey with at least 30,000 jobs and meets certain other requirements. The bill, designed with Amazon’s HQ2 in mind, is the latest expansion of these special business tax breaks in New Jersey in recent years.

“Instead of coming up with a sensible plan to reverse billions of dollars of disinvestment in New Jersey’s top economic assets, like public transit or higher education or high-quality preschool, the state’s lawmakers have doubled down on trickle-down economics by clearing the way for a gigantic tax subsidy for Amazon. If New Jersey wants to build a stronger, brighter future, it needs to seriously rethink and reform its use and abuse of these special tax breaks – not just continuously expand them at every turn of the corner.”

New Jersey’s subsidy surge, by the numbers (figures are up-to-date through the EDA’s December 2017 meeting):

• $8.3 billion: Total amount of tax breaks approved since January 2010 (a monthly rate of $87 million)

• $5.7 billion: Of that, the amount that’s come since December 2013, when the “Economic Opportunity Act of 2013” went into effect (a monthly rate of $117 million)