Republican candidate for Governor Jack Ciattarelli on Tuesday pledged to cut the state’s corporate business tax by more than 50% in the next six years while also suggesting numerous tax changes that will help small business.
“There is a fiscal calamity around the corner,” he said. “I will reduce the size and cost of our state government, but you can’t tax your way out of this. The only way out is to grow our economy.”
Ciattarelli was speaking at The Palace in Somerset at a post-primary event sponsored by the N.J. Business & Industry Association. Both he and Democratic nominee Mikie Sherrill spoke to the crowd for 10-15 minutes then took a handful of questions.
Ciattarelli offered very specific plans on commerce, energy, taxes and regulation to a business audience that was eager to hear them.
He sounded like a CPA and a former business owner – and someone who has been actively campaigning to be governor for nearly a decade. He gave his entire speech without notes.
“One of my primary objectives is to make New Jersey a better place to do business,” he told a packed house. “I do not want to be the governor of a state that’s ranked year over year as one of the worst places in the country in which to do business.”
Ciattarelli said the modern economy needs a modern approach.
“In the old days, businesses would look primarily at two things: taxes and regulations. Today, they look at four things: taxes, regulations, labor pool and energy.”
He said the current administration has failed in all four areas.
“This administration has not been pro-business,” he said. “It doesn’t celebrate the business community.”
Ciattarelli said he will bring state workers back to the job — and ensure they are working to serve the citizens of the state.
“Our state agencies will not be police states or collection agencies, they will be partners,” he said. “We will help you get to where it is you’ve got to go in order for you to be successful. Because when you’re successful, New Jersey is successful.”
Most of all, he asked: Do you want to compete with other states for business?
Here are some of the specifics he offered to do just that.
Commerce: Ciattarelli said he will bring back the department of commerce because “it sends an important signal to the business community.”
“I think it’s important that businesses know that they have a liaison to the executive branch,” he said. “I think it’s important that big businesses, when they’re working on very large-scale projects, have somebody in my department of commerce that can help shepherd things through various departments, so they don’t have to work with four or five different agencies.”
Energy: Ciattarelli said he’s pro natural gas and nuclear — and anti-wind.
“I’ve never been an advocate for wind,” he said. “I believe it’s bad economics, bad energy policy and bad environmental policy. Natural gas is a very rational bridge to the future for whenever it is the future shows up. Whether that future is fusion energy, micromodular nuclear, carbon capture, hydrogen cell, it will arrive, but until then, we need a rational transition to the future.”
Ciattarelli said the state’s energy failures will cost it a chance to be a leader in data centers/AI and cryptocurrency — and that he will call for the resignation of all members of the board of public utilities who “blundered” by betting it all on wind.
“I don’t have my head in the sand in terms of the powerful signals Mother Earth is sending us, but the approach we’ve seen from this administration is the wrong approach,” he said. “It was unrealistic. It was pie in the sky. It was never going to meet the forecasting demand.”
Ciattarelli vowed to expand the state’s ability to produce electricity from natural gas, lifting the unofficial moratorium on natural gas plants, while expanding nuclear.
“I’ll bring three or four more (natural gas plants) on within a two-year period, and we will expand our nuclear footprint in South Jersey,” he said. “I’m not opposed to solar, but I have to go to where we can produce the greatest amount of electricity, in the most reliable way, in the most cost-effective way, to get these rates down.”
Taxes: Ciattarelli said he would follow the lead of Pennsylvania, vowing to reduce the corporate business tax (currently the highest in the country) by 1% a year for six years, to bring it down to 5%.
He offered other tax cuts to spark entrepreneurship and help small businesses, too.
“How about if we make the gain on the sale of an IPO stock tax free if you’re headquartered in New Jersey for small businesses,” he said.
“How about if we make the first $100,000 of business income tax free?
“How about if we make the first $100,000 of payroll exempt from employer payroll taxes?
“How about if we make the gain on the sale of a sole proprietorship, those mom-and-pop shops on Main Street, tax free.
“You want to see entrepreneurship take off in the state, make the gain on the sale of a sole proprietorship, tax free.”
Regulations: Ciattarelli said the state should not be afraid to embrace policies that have been successful elsewhere.
“How about we adopt Delaware’s bylaws for corporate governance?” he asked and then answered. “Nevada did that 13 years ago and it’s worked out really well for them. I’ve yet to find anyone who can give me an argument as to why we shouldn’t adopt Delaware’s bylaws for corporate governance.”
He said the state is not in balance.
“We can be less regulatory intensive,” he said. “This administration has wanted to make every 1099, a w2 – every non-union job a union job. I’m not anti-union, but I think our economy is best served with balance.”
Ciattarelli said it’s possible to reduce regulation responsibly.
“We’re an over-regulated state,” he said. “I believe that we can lessen the regulations without screwing the consumer or doing irreparable harm to the environment.”
