In our Spotlight on Business report, New Jersey has long been one of the most expensive places in the country to live and do business.

But a policy proposal from the New Jersey Business and Industry Association says that could change, all with the right leadership.

The NJBAA has released the 2025 Blueprint for a Competitive New Jersey.

It's a roadmap aimed at helping whoever becomes the next governor and all elected officials drive innovation and boost the economy.

I recently spoke with Michelle Sekirka, the president and CEO of the NJBIA, about what business leaders are looking for.

Michelle, thank you so much for coming in to talk about this.

So this blueprint has been framed as a roadmap for whomever wins the governor's race.

Why did the association feel the need to put this out?

Was the business community not being heard, not having a seat at the table with policy makers?

- 100%.

The last seven years, we've been challenged to have our seat at the table.

So now we decided business needs to be at the center, not just at the table, but at the center.

And so the blueprint is that guidepost to get us there.

Affordability, regional competitiveness, 66 recommendations that actually we could get done if we put business at the center.

So it does outline a lot of reforms.

I mean, everything from taxes to energy to education.

What's the single, if you could, single most urgent change that you are recommending the next governor to take hold of in order to make New Jersey competitive, as you say it could be?

Absolutely.

So on day one, we can send a really strong message that business could be at the center if we create that Department of Commerce and Innovation that we so desperately need in the state.

What would that do?

Well, it would put a cabinet-level person sitting at the governor's table each and every day so that every issue, every discussion, business's voice is at that table.

And that's critically important right now, given the economy.

Look, this governor's going to come in in January.

Within four weeks, they're going to have to put a fiscal budget together for the next fiscal year.

Daunting, at best.

We're at a fiscal cliff in this state.

We lack competitiveness in our own region.

We're never going to compete with Florida or Texas, right?

But right now, Pennsylvania's eating our lunch on corporate business tax.

They're getting all the AI play.

We've got significant challenges in this state that we need to pay attention to, and we need to do it on day one of a new administration.

It's so interesting that you bring up corporate business tax.

I was just looking at, across the river, Zohan Mandani, the candidate for New York mayor, was looking at New Jersey's corporate business tax to be a model for New York.

And I don't want to go down that road, but what you're saying is that it's not working.

No, absolutely not.

We continue to drive business out of the state, and with that goes money.

15 years, the past 15 years, $33 billion of adjusted gross income has left this state.

Now I'm not just talking about feet.

I'm talking about money, wealth.

Think about if we had $33 billion in our general operating budget, what a better place we'd be.

Think about seven years ago, our budget was, give or take, $37, $38 billion.

Today, we're at $57, $58, almost 70% increase.

That's not sustainable, right?

For this next budget year, we've got a little bit of space because we've got that surplus, right?

But that's not sustainable either.

So what are we gonna do?

What do we need to do?

We need to grow the economy.

Who grows the economy?

Job creators.

That's who we need to focus on.

- So let's talk about taxes and costs.

We know New Jersey consistently ranks among the highest, if not the highest in the nation.

What are some of the actionable steps that could be taken that are in this blueprint for the new administration to make a noticeable difference?

Because for a taxpayer, sometimes some of the policy decisions structurally make a change, right?

But they're not necessarily seeing it in their pocket.

No, absolutely.

So, we can stay on that corporate business tax for starters, what we call today the corporate transit fee, that surcharge, right?

You mentioned, well I mentioned Pennsylvania.

They're in the process of driving down to below 5% over the next five years, while we've just jacked up to 11.5.

Not just the largest, but an outlier.

Nobody else is even in double digits, right?

Years ago, seven years ago, we had 21 Fortune 500 companies here in the state of New Jersey.

Today we have 15.

So if we look at that corporate business tax and start driving that down with guardrails, again, a percentage a year over five years, maybe we can compete.

That's doable.

That's absolutely doable.

There's also a big emphasis in here on energy affordability.

Yes.

Obviously has become a key point in this gubernatorial race, and it's going to be beyond that given what we're up against.

But how are you looking to balance competitiveness with fairness?

Because sometimes critics of some of these plans will say, "Well, the deregulation or overregulation comes at the expense of environmental protections for folks."

What's the plan laying out as far as energy and resiliency?

So let's start at the fact that New Jersey, as we sit here today, is one of the cleanest states when it comes to our air quality.

And that's because we've had good regulation since the '70s.

I mean, we were way ahead.

We were way ahead.

What we suffer from is the downwind from the states that are burning coal up north from here, right?

Ohio, Pennsylvania, that comes down.

And that creates quality issues here.

So what do we do in this space?

We need an all-of-the-above approach because it's about accessibility and affordability.

We need to make sure that we don't price people out of their energy.

Few years ago, we were an outmigrator of energy, meaning we sent energy to other states.

Today, we have to import energy at a cost.

All right, and that's caught up with us.

We stopped investing in natural gas distribution and the creation of natural gas here.

And because of that, we now have to go other places and bring that energy into the state.

And that's costing us.

- So you want to see a mix, then, of energy resources.

- All of the above.

Everybody wants clean, green future for the state of New Jersey.

Hands down, that's what we want.

But we have to get there in an affordable and responsible manner.

I want to end just on workforce development because again a big piece of what you're talking about.

What gaps are you seeing or do your members see in terms of what's being taught, what the pipeline is building compared to what employers need to build the jobs as you say that become the backbone of the economy.

So what's really great about the blueprint we have is we have four pages on education and workforce development.

Every other issue we have two.

That's at the backbone is our future workforce.

And yes, there's a huge disconnect.

What we need to do, we need better intersectionality between workforce development and education pre-K to post-16.

And we need to be educating our students today from the very beginning with career-minded for the future, from the beginning all the way through their lifetime.

Michelle, we're going to leave it there.

The blueprint obviously available for folks to take a look at.

I'm sure it will come up quite a bit in these next couple of weeks.

Good to talk to you.

Thanks so much for coming in.

Thanks so much.

Support for The Business Report is provided by the Newark Alliance presents the 2025 Howzyfest, featuring the vibrancy of Newark's Arts and Education District and Howzy Street.

A neighborhood built on hustle and heart.

The 2025 Howzy Fest schedule is available at HowzyNWK.com.

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