- We're joined once again by Tim Sullivan, CEO, of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Their website is up right now.

Tim, good to see you.

- Great to be with you, Steve.

- You got it real quick, 30 seconds or less for people who may not know what the EDA is.

What is it?

Particularly in these challenging times of 2025.

- Economic Development Authority, now in our 51st year, part of the state government, part of Governor Murphy's team, advancing economic growth, economic diversification, supporting small businesses and innovation all throughout the state of New Jersey.

- Is it fair to say Tim, I know Michele Siekerka referred to the head of the Business and Industry Association in a previous segment referred to as the... Are you a bank, if you will, for businesses... - Certainly one of the things we do, we make loans.

We can issue bonds, but we also issue grants.

We issue tax credits, we make all kinds of investments in New Jersey's economic competitiveness.

So we are certainly a source of financial support for the business community.

- You've done this before.

Hey Tim, let's play word association.

It is April 22nd, we're taping, be seen in May and beyond.

I say tariffs, you say what.

- Depends on which day it is, I suppose.

It remains to be seen as it's all gonna play out, but it's certainly an important factor driving New Jersey's economy forward and the global economy.

- What are you hearing from the business leaders you deal with regarding tariffs?

- Yeah, even more broadly than with regards to tariffs.

I'm old enough to remember being lectured by the business community that stability and predictability is really important, and that's certainly something Governor Murphy has done his best to advance here in the great state of New Jersey for the last seven plus years.

And uncertainty is bad for investment.

It's bad for confidence in knowing what the future holds.

And so, I think predictability and stability are really important.

- It's interesting you and your colleagues that there have been several missions, economic development related.

Folks that choose New Jersey together with the EDA and others involved.

South Asia, you and your colleagues went.

How much different do you think the conversation would be or the meetings about potentially bringing business here, businesses here, doing business there impacted greatly by tariffs, correct?

- It's certainly gonna be a factor.

It's less of a factor in New Jersey versus North Carolina versus California as much as it is, you know, am I gonna set up manufacturing in the states or in some other country or keeping it in the home country?

And we see tons of opportunity and that, you know, with or without tariffs, we see huge opportunities to continue to expand manufacturing in New Jersey.

That's something Governor Murphy been focused on since day one, long before there was you know, national tariff discussion.

- Let's talk about expansion in New Jersey, particularly around innovation, discovery.

Our mutual friend Chris Paladino over at Devco and the folks at the Helix, and we'll put up the Helix website right now so people can find out more.

What is the New Jersey AI hub and how is it connected to innovation and discovery in the state?

- Yeah, really exciting new project and initiative that if you're judged by the company you keep, this is a great one for the state of New Jersey and the EDA.

So this is the EDA on behalf of the state, Princeton University, Microsoft and Core Weave, which is a homegrown success story now, a publicly traded company in the AI space.

And so, this is gonna help drive and position New Jersey as a global leader in the research and development and acceleration of innovation at startups in the AI space.

Both pure play AI companies that are, you know, in the data center and the compute and large language model business, but also the application side of the world.

How is this gonna transform drug discovery?

What's it gonna mean for clean energy?

And I don't know the answer to those questions, but I know it's gonna mean something.

- You know, it's interesting Tim, you mentioned clean energy.

Is it clear in your mind?

You folks at the EDA don't do public policy, but you're a bank for a lot of folks and provide economic resources to make things happen.

But offshore wind as it relates to the governor, Governor Murphy's clean energy initiative.

Is offshore wind, are our offshore wind projects dead?

- Well, I'd say, you know, you certainly to have offshore wind work in the United States and certainly in the northeast, you need to have really strong alignment between the federal government, state government, and the local government.

Whether that's the state of New Jersey or any other state.

We very clearly do not have that right now, which is disappointing.

We had that for four years during the Biden, Harris administration.

Because I think, and this has I think less to do with clean energy and more to do with economic opportunity than anything else.

- Explain the economic part of that, Tim, for folks who say it's purely an environmental policy and energy policy, but it is more than that.

- Yeah, it's an opportunity, Offshore wind represents an opportunity for tens of thousands of new manufacturing jobs, particularly in South Jersey.

And, you know, if you don't like offshore wind, I think it behooves you to have a plan B for 10 to 20,000 manufacturing jobs in South Jersey in a place that could surely use it.

And right now I'm not aware of one.

If there is one, I'll work like hell on it on behalf of the governor and everybody else.

But there's not opportunities like offshore wind to manufacture the turbines and the components that go into 'em.

There's thousands of supply chain components that go into an offshore wind turbine, that debate about, you know, how and where and when.

It is obviously, of course a robust debate, but we got, you know, the governor's offshore wind target for New Jersey is 11 gigawatts of power.

That's a lot of power.

- Translate that Tim.

- 11 gigawatts enough to power every home in New Jersey.

- Okay, all right.

- We're not there yet, we don't have any installed.

There's also a misperception out there about how many wind turbines have been installed off the coast of New Jersey.

If you listen to some folks, they would tell you that we're already sort of full, at full capacity.

There's not a single wind turbine off the coast of New Jersey.

- Not a single wind... - No, and that's irritating and frustrating because that's a huge opportunity to generate clean renewable energy and power, you know, the south Jersey economy.

But there's none in yet.

- Elections do have consequences.

So how about this, - Gimme a minute or less on NJ Cool.

What is the $15 million pilot project?

What is it?

- Yep, that's exactly right.

And it's one of our energy efficiency initiatives and one of the things that's most important and we think about cost of energy, obviously on everyone's mind these days.

The least expensive energy is the energy you don't use.

So whether that's retrofitting old buildings, or thinking about new ways to generate, you know, to do your HVAC system in a building that is more energy efficient, it's a huge opportunity.

Also create a lot of jobs, retrofitting buildings, creating energy efficiency is a huge opportunity.

- We've been involved in a childcare initiative.

We've talked to you about this before.

The first 1000 days policy coalition will come up right now, a group of folks very involved and interested in creating an environment in the state where quality, affordable, accessible childcare improves.

Right?

Connect once again, I've asked you this question 10 times, but it keeps evolving, particularly in these days.

Connect the childcare challenge slash the opportunities to improve it to the economic vitality of our state and our workforce.

- Yeah, I mean, forget for a second that childcare is extremely important.

Quality childcare, early childhood education is incredibly important for the development of our kids, which is, you know, the most important thing in the world you could focus on.

It's also economic infrastructure.

And we saw that during the pandemic it loomed largely.

When the childcare system wasn't working, it was like not having electricity coming outta the walls, or the roads not working.

People can't go to work if their kids don't have someplace safe and reliable and affordable to go during the day.

And that's born outta data all across the country, again during the pandemic and now after.

And so investing in New Jersey's childcare, infrastructure and capacity and quality is a win-win both from early childhood education perspective, but also from an economic infrastructure perspective.

Folks can't go to work, and show up at the office or show up at the job site if there's not someplace for their kids to be that's safe and reliable.

- Thank you Tim.

And PS to disclose a long time underwriter of our economic development programming.

Thank you Tim.

- Great to be with you Steve.

Thanks for having me as always.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

IBEW Local 102.

Congress Hall.

A Cape Resorts property.

New Jersey’s Clean Energy program.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

EJI, Excellence in Medicine Awards.

A New Jersey health foundation program.

PSE&G.

Rutgers University Newark.

And by The Adler Aphasia Center.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by ROI-NJ.

- The EJI Excellence in Medicine Awards was established in 1939, shining a light on New Jersey's health care leaders.

Current awards include the Excellence in Medicine, Research, Medical, Education and Community Service.

EJI also funds annual scholarships to medical, dental, pharmaceutical and physician assistant students throughout the state.

Learn more at EJIAwards.org.