When you are prepared and almost expecting to see your state at the bottom of yet
another business ranking list, it’s just plain old sad. And that’s how it felt when New
Jersey fell to 50th — or last place — in business friendliness in CNBC’s Best States for
Business last week.
We know that you don’t just get here overnight. In fact, this metric has been earned over decades due to taxes and policies that just make it increasingly difficult to do business
here.
Ohio, which finished as the best state for business in 2026, agrees that change doesn’t
happen overnight. It was interesting to hear Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine on CNBC after he
was asked what he thought the Buckeye State’s big appeal was for job creators, given
its own affordability challenges like New Jersey.
“This is a state that has stability … we’re predictable,” DeWine said. “We’re not going to
have any big changes that (would) bother you from bringing your company in here.
What we tell you today is going to continue to be true two years, three years, four years
from now.”
Predictability! Sounds familiar. That word is probably one of the most used words in the
NJBIA playbook for affordability and regional competitiveness.
Isn’t it time that our policymakers in Trenton take that up that mantle?
Make no mistake, Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s ‘Save You Time and Money’ agenda is off to a
great start, and we are confident that her Day One executive orders to reduce costs and
permitting delays through increased accountability and transparency will be a major
value add.
Her administration also has the business community at the table, which is another
important step.
But at the same time, our job creators continue to see lots of “big changes” that make it
impossible to have the predictability and certainty they need to make forward-looking
investments.
What do we mean?
New Jersey just completed another budget cycle where more costs and burdens were
levied on business. And we continue to see new, anti-business policies that change the
rules of engagement all too often.
Some recent examples:
- Two years ago, Gov. Phil Murphy nixed his expressed commitment to sunset a
2.5% corporation surtax and instead recast it as a retroactive 2.5% Corporate
Transit Fee. Not only did this keep us saddled with the top Corporate Business
Tax in the nation at 11.5% (while neighboring Pennsylvania heads toward
4.99%), but it also caused our largest employers to unexpectedly restate their
budgets set earlier in the year. This is not something companies like to do, or
what Wall Street likes to see. - Earlier this year, Gov. Sherrill adopted a Murphy-era rule proposal that makes
wholesale changes to the ABC worker determination test, making it nearly
impossible to prove that a worker is an independent contractor. There was 99%
opposition to this proposal from the business community and freelance workers
alike last year. Yet it was adopted anyway and will negatively impact both
groups. - There’s a new misplaced tax on business in the FY27 budget that improperly
penalizes employers with 50 or more workers on Medicaid. This is an unfair and,
yes, unfriendly hit to businesses and nonprofits that will likely have serious
unintended consequences for many workers who choose Medicaid coverage. - There were two other tax changes impacting businesses, both of which were
reversals of intentional prior bipartisan changes to make New Jersey more
regionally competitive. - And then there’s the Climate Superfund/Polluters Pay Act that continues to have
a life in the Legislature. It seeks to retroactively penalize businesses billions of
dollars for legally providing fossil fuels, an essential product that everyone uses
and needs. We’re thankful that the bill did not advance to the Governor’s desk
before June 30. But the fact we saw a policy fly through committees last month
that literally states “follow every rule and every law and we can still retroactively
fine you billions,” says everything you need to know about how some lawmakers
see business in the state.
As we said last week, we are at an inflection point for business in New Jersey.
We continue to see an alarming number of job creators deciding to move, grow, or
invest elsewhere. Even our state site selectors are sounding the alarm.
Our WARN Act notices have totaled more than 9,000 jobs so far this year and as
reported by Focus New Jersey, we lost at least 7,000 jobs, nearly $675 million in annual
payroll and approximately $27.3 million in annual income tax revenue in the past two
years, due to a select group of companies choosing to invest elsewhere. These are
serious numbers.
So, we ask our policymakers, please take heed and do it now. Choose to see policy
through the lens of “how does this impact New Jersey businesses and in turn, New
Jersey’s economy?”
Because at the end of the day, it is our job creators, of all sizes, that provide the
pathway to living in New Jersey. They galvanize our economy. They need to be seen as
more than a trough for government spending.
Ohio knew it would take years, but they got out a playbook and got started.
“We’ve been strategically focused on making Ohio literally the go-to state for business,”
Gov. DeWine said on CNBC last week.
With all that is so good in New Jersey, don’t we deserve that same chance? We have
so many opportunities. Let’s seize them and commit to no more “big changes” but rather
create predictability, which will lead to investment and improve our business friendliness
for the sake of our job creators and the millions of New Jersey residents they employ.
Doing so would be all the change we need.
Michele Siekerka is the CEO of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association.
