If you want to know where New Jersey’s next round of economic development policy is
heading, Evan Weiss says you have to start with a simple admission: The old
framework is not enough anymore.
The longtime policy expert, now CEO of the N.J. Economic Development Authority, said
the Sherrill administration is actively working on its own version of an economic plan —
one that updates the state’s economic playbook without freezing private investment.
“We are in the process right now of doing: What is the Sherrill administration’s version of stronger, fairer?” he said. “We need that. It’s a new time.”
Weiss insists he’s not out to blow up the tools that are working, but he’s blunt that a new
governor and a changed economy require new priorities.
“A big part of the conversation we’ve been having is like, ‘Let’s continue the stuff that we’ve seen that’s effective,’” he said. “We don’t need to reinvent the wheel or discover that we have an exciting future in pharmaceuticals. We know that. It’s more about how do we take that and do something with it.”
So, don’t expect a fancy slogan or marketing campaign. Or even a big announcement.
As Sherrill has been on numerous issues, Weiss said the governor is all about
streamlining policies in a practical — not necessarily promotional — way.
“Gov. Sherrill is so focused on what is the actual experience for the business or the
employee when they interact with us,” he said.
That’s why Weiss said he is spending much of his time on the mechanics of tax credits,
transaction costs and the bureaucratic steps between statute language and a check in
someone’s hands.
Those details, he argues, will decide whether the new agenda produces “hundreds of
millions of dollars in new projects” — or just another set of programs that are too hard or
too costly to use.
While doing this, Weiss said he’s wary of the classic policy trap: talk so loudly about
change that the market slams on the brakes.
“My hope, very sincerely, is that we will thread a needle between: we need new policy,
new time, new priorities, but I want to avoid having the market getting totally confused,”
he said.
Creating a scenario where investment is held up, Weiss said.
The goal, he says, is evolution, not paralysis.
“We are going to make changes — no question,” he said. “We’re going to talk about
those changes publicly, but it’s like it has to be where investment doesn’t stop,
investment just changes.”
Weiss brings plenty of experience to the role, having previously served as the head of
the Newark Alliance and as a chief policy advisor for Gov. Murphy.
In a recent sit down with BINJE, Weiss talked about his plans for this role. Here’s more
of the conversation, edited slightly for space and clarity.
BINJE: You’ve worked around EDA for years. What has actually surprised you now that
you’re running it?
Evan Weiss: When I worked in the Murphy administration, one of my jobs there was
managing a lot of the policy that went into EDA, so I had a good understanding of it in
terms of, ‘What is going on. I then at Newark Alliance, we used some EDA products,
and certainly tons of our members did, so I had an understanding.
“When you’re inside of it, the biggest difference has been seeing how you get from
policy idea to a check in someone’s hands, whether that’s a big company, small
company, big developer, small developer. That’s been the eye opener.”
BINJE: People have said EDA programs are too hard — or too expensive — to use.
How do you change that?
EW: I’ve spent a lot of time internally trying to figure out, ‘How do we make this a better
experience. And I think we’ll be convening soon some more groups of developers,
lenders, finance folks, guarantors, tax credit syndicators, to hear directly from the
market.
I did this (recently) with some of the folks in the pharmaceutical industry. I said, ‘Get
specific with me. Tell me what you look like. And it’s not just, ‘It’s hard to do business
here, the taxes are too high.’ I’ll say, ‘No, tell me exactly why it’s hard to do business,
and then we are going to work on that.
BINJE: Do they offer any real specifics?
EW: I’ve heard developers say, ‘I could do this basically for the same amount of money
if I didn’t use the EDA program, because you give me the subsidy, but then you then
layer on all of these things.’
BINJE: Those “things” can be requirements to use prevailing wage or adding affordable
housing. Are those on the table?
EW: I’ve had a lot of arguments with developers over the years who don’t want to do
prevailing wage, some don’t want to do the affordable housing. That’s not negotiable.
Those are policy considerations that we have made, and are 100% behind.”
What is under consideration is, again, how those work. So how do we actually use our
credits into the marketplace?”
BINJE: So, what exactly are you trying to fix about how these tax credits hit the market?
EW: A lot of our focus has been trying to figure out better ways to have the credits go
into the world, so that the developer or the business can get as much out of them and
we lose as little as we can in transaction costs.”
I know this is kind of a snooze fest, but this means potentially hundreds of millions of
dollars in new projects, if we figure this out just by figuring out how to make this more
efficient.
