November 10, 2008
NJ Biz on the Garden State?s Last Place Ranking in the State Business Tax Climate Index
"There May Actually Be a Silver Lining in this Mess"
By David Houston
This has not been a fun fall. There is no need to recite the countless problems that we are now facing in this global financial mess, but there may be some good news for New Jersey coming out of all this.
For many years, through Republican and Democratic administrations and Legislatures, I have been writing about the state's economic policies that were designed more as a manual to what state government shouldn't do than anything else (not exactly an original thought).
The Tax Foundation ranked New Jersey's tax policies as 50th in the nation in terms of how businesses were treated. So, coupled with other regulatory overkill and a sense that our location allowed us to beat up on business without any repercussions, we developed a business climate that has consistently been ranked as one of the worst in the nation. We have also suffered from the tyranny of various vocal lobbying groups, which have forced their legislative agendas through Trenton regardless of the economic consequences. So what you had was an establishment in Trenton that was more concerned with keeping the status quo than proactively addressing the future of our state.
