Doing Right by Job Creators

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By Michele N. Siekerka, NJBIA President and CEO On Jan 29, 2025

Most call them businesses; we call them job creators. Why? Let’s explain it with data that puts this in perspective.

Nearly 4 million people in this state hold jobs created by the private sector. Put another way, over 80% of all New Jersey jobs today are here because an entrepreneur took financial risks, invested capital, and worked long hours to launch and grow a company, and become a job creator.

New Jersey’s 237,000-plus job creators drive innovation, fuel economic growth, generously support charitable causes, and pay the local, state, and federal taxes that help fund government programs and services. Their taxes help pay for schools, roads, bridges, mass transit, infrastructure, law enforcement, healthcare programs and more.

These job creators are the heart and soul of their communities and the backbone of the state and national economies. Unfortunately, when the annual state budget season begins every February in New Jersey, too many lawmakers view them as the proverbial cash cow.

We all remember what happened last year. After months of promising to allow the surtax on the Corporation Business Tax to sunset as scheduled by law, Gov. Phil Murphy and the Legislature reversed course at the 11th hour. The FY25 budget enacted last summer included a new $1 billion Corporate Transit Fee, a euphemism for the old 2.5% CBT surcharge (levied on top of the 9% CBT rate) and it was retroactive to Jan. 1, 2024. 

This betrayal once again gave New Jersey the nation’s highest overall CBT rate at 11.5% and put an unfortunate exclamation point on our state’s reputation as being unfriendly to business. It is worth noting that before the state began imposing CBT surcharges in 2018, there were 22 Fortune 500 companies in New Jersey. Now there are 14.

NJBIA asks lawmakers for a more transparent budget process for the FY26 state spending plan that will take effect on July 1. Job creators should be treated as partners in efforts to produce economic growth and prosperity, not bottomless pocketbooks. 

To do otherwise is short-sighted because it undermines job creators’ ability to make the investments that produce the food, clothing, medicines, electricity, transportation, technology, energy, and so much more made here in New Jersey. Higher business taxes are also counterproductive because they impact the ability of our job creators to provide higher wages, health benefits, and retirement accounts for workers.

Doing right by business means doing right for all of New Jersey. Let’s support New Jersey’s job creators! 

To access more business news, visit NJB News Now.

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