New Jersey is competing every day for companies, jobs and investment. Two recent developments should be a wake-up call for policymakers — and reinforce why improving our business competitiveness must remain a top priority.
Burlington Stores recently announced it will move its longtime corporate headquarters from Burlington Township to Philadelphia.
This is more than another corporate relocation. Burlington was founded in New Jersey in 1972, carries the name of a New Jersey community, and county, and has called the Garden State home for more than five decades.
Now, the Fortune 500 retailer plans to invest approximately $370 million in a new Philadelphia headquarters, with the project expected to support at least 2,000 jobs over five years.
Burlington has said the move is not a reflection of New Jersey’s business climate. We take the company at its word. But New Jersey should not simply shrug its shoulders when a homegrown Fortune 500 company moves its headquarters just across the Delaware River.
It should cause us to ask: What more could we have done to keep Burlington here?
New Jersey already faces significant competitiveness challenges. Our businesses contend with some of the highest taxes in the nation, significant regulatory burdens and the high cost of operating in this state. Meanwhile, neighboring states are aggressively recruiting companies, offering incentives and positioning themselves as places where businesses can invest and grow.
At the same time, New Jersey is sending another troubling signal to an industry we have spent years cultivating.
The state recently joined a multistate lawsuit seeking to block Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The proposed transaction is now the subject of an antitrust challenge, with New Jersey choosing to join the multistate lawsuit seeking to block it.
That decision should also be viewed through the lens of New Jersey’s economic competitiveness — particularly the potential consequences for an industry the state has spent years and significant resources working to attract and grow.
New Jersey has invested heavily in becoming a national center for film and television production. We have enacted competitive incentives, promoted our assets and successfully recruited major studios.
Paramount itself has committed to become an anchor tenant at 1888 Studios in Bayonne, signing a long-term lease for more than 285,000 square feet and establishing a significant production presence in our state.
That makes New Jersey’s participation in this lawsuit especially concerning.
On one hand, we are offering incentives and telling the entertainment industry that New Jersey wants its jobs, productions and investment. On the other, we are helping challenge a major transaction involving one of the companies we successfully recruited.
That is a mixed message — and businesses pay attention to those messages.
The issue extends far beyond Paramount or Burlington. Business leaders making investment decisions evaluate taxes, regulations, incentives, workforce and infrastructure. They also consider whether a state offers a predictable, welcoming environment for investment and growth.
New Jersey cannot control every corporate decision. But we can control the policies we enact, the actions our government takes and the message we send to companies considering whether to invest here.
Every decision contributes to our reputation as a place to do business.
New Jersey has extraordinary advantages — an exceptional workforce, world-class universities, unmatched location and access to major markets. But those advantages do not guarantee investment.
Companies have choices.
The Burlington departure should remind us that competitors are right across our borders. The Paramount lawsuit should make us consider whether our own actions could undermine the industries we are actively trying to grow.
Our goal must be clear: Make New Jersey the place where businesses want to come, invest, grow — and stay.
That requires more than incentives. It requires competitive taxes, reasonable regulations, predictability and a consistent message from government that New Jersey values private investment and intends to compete for it.
We cannot afford to tell businesses we want their investment while pursuing policies and actions that may give them reasons to take it elsewhere.
New Jersey needs to offer credibility, predictability, reliability and a consistent welcoming hand – with enhanced programs and incentives – to retain, grow and attract business. This is imperative if we want to compete.
Are any of those characteristics in place? If not, are they forthcoming?
Tom Bracken is president and CEO of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce based in Trenton.
