>> Funding for "NJ Business Beat with Raven Santana" provided by NJMEP, a partner to New Jersey's manufacturing industry focus on productivity, performance, and strategic development.

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♪ >> This is "NJ Business Beat with Raven Santana."

Raven: Hello, I am Raven Santana.

Thank you for joining me on "NJ Business Beat."

You might be paying top dollar to enter lower Manhattan this summer.

You might have heard about the city's congestion pricing plan.

It will force drivers to pay a toll to enter Mohan had -- Manhattan.

It will cost $15 to enter lower Manhattan during the day and $3.75 per night.

The price goes up for trucks and buses.

As much as $36 during the day and $9 at night.

$1 billion in annual revenue will be used to improve the MTA.

Leaders have pushed back against this plan saying it is unfair to garden state drivers who work or visit family in the city.

The Murphy administration sued over the plan and the congressman has raised major concerns over its environmental impact.

How will it impact New Jersey businesses?

I sat down with Tom Bracken, president of the NJ State Chamber of Commerce to learn more.

We know you have been long opposed to New York's congestion pricing plan.

In 2021 you and other business leaders asked New Jersey be included in some discussions surrounding the plan and that did not happen.

Explain why you wanted to be involved in what you are hoping to get from New York's Metropolitan transit Authority and New York's political leadership.

Mr. Bracken: When you have a problem or issue like this, the only way to come up with a reasonable resolution to the problem is to have a constructive dialogue, which means you have to get the parties engaged together to talk about the proposal, to talk about the issues that people have, and come up with solutions that hopefully will satisfy all parties and not be a contentious final decision.

That was the reason we wanted to meet.

Quite frankly, it is something that all issues should follow as far as a game plan because nothing beats sitting down face-to-face, talking through the issues with constructive dialogue.

It eliminates all of the vitriolic conversation and comments back and forth, which do not add anything to the solution of the issue, and in fact aggravate them.

Raven: That is a great point.

Let's talk about the impact on New Jersey's business community, especially small business owners.

Do you have any estimates how much this will cost New Jersey businesses?

Mr. Bracken: I do not.

Companies, people who are going into the city will be paying a lot more to get nothing for it.

The payment is something for which you get no return.

The absurdity of this, Raven, to have a New York City mass transit situation that has problems, similar to our New Jersey transit problems, to ask commuters from another state to pay for their problems is absurd.

It would be like asking us to have New York City residents to pay for our New Jersey transit budget problems.

It makes no sense.

There is no direct linkage at all.

The real problem is most of the people who will pay this are the lower income people -- Raven: That is right.

Mr. Bracken: They do not have the availability at times to take mass transit to get into the city.

There is really nothing at all good about this plan for New Jersey.

It is very punitive, it is embarrassing, it is a real problem for our state.

Raven: Right.

That is not even to mention the health impact to those.

Mr. Bracken: I am not even sure they really measured that problem.

Raven: Tom, could this lead to New Jersey-owned businesses to stop doing business in New York?

What about workers who commute into Manhattan?

Do you think some people could decide to work in New Jersey if they can?

Mr. Bracken: I believe the New Jersey economic authority has tax credits in place for New York companies that open up satellite facilities in New Jersey to allow the workers of those New York companies to be domicile in New Jersey.

I'm not sure much of that will be taken advantage of but I believe that is in place and I hope people would take advantage of that because that would eliminate those workers going into the city and paying the congestion pricing.

The other thing, Raven, I think you have to realize with congestion pricing and having New Jersey citizens, especially the people in the business community, pay to get into the city, there are many New Jersey workers who are working from home, whose companies are domiciled in New York and they are paying New York taxes when they do not go to New York anymore.

They are working from their homes, which is pretty common these days.

I believe the amount of tax that we pay in excess for that situation is in the billions of dollars.

We are already subsidizing New York City with those taxes for people who do not even work in the city.

So this is just another subsidy we are giving to the city.

Sooner or later, enough is enough.

Raven: There are several lawsuits aimed at stopping New York's congestion pricing.

Is there anything New Jersey's business community can do now to stop this from going forward?

Mr. Bracken: I think if there was, we would have been asked.

Lawsuits are the endgame and the might have been possible ways to talk about this before lawsuits were filed.

Once you file a lawsuit, that is where it can be most properly adjudicated.

I go back to the point of not being engaged in any conversations before this.

We never had the opportunity to try to do something before this because nobody would want to meet with us.

Raven: What is the big take away?

For people who are watching, who may still be on the fence, what do you want them to know?

There is a lot of severe impacts for New Jersey -- healthwise, businesswise, traffic wise, what do you want to leave people with?

Mr. Bracken: I want to leave people with -- this is a situation that has no merit.

It is punitive to New Jersey and the citizens of New Jersey.

Again, I go back to when I mentioned before, when we are being asked to pay for MTA's problems when MTA should be fixing their own problems, it is ridiculous.

Just a basic ask of having us pay for their problems, does it get any more foolish than that?

Raven: Hopefully we will not thanks to you advocating for us not to.

Tom Bracken, president and CEO of the NJ Chamber of Commerce.

Thank you for joining me on "NJ Business Beat."

Mr. Bracken: Anytime, Raven.

Raven: New Jersey leaders are also concerned about the environmental impact of congestion pricing while New York lawmakers argue the plan will lead to cleaner air, New Jersey representatives say it will diverge more cars and trucks through northern New Jersey communities, exposing them to increased levels of pollution and more traffic.

One of those impacted cities could be Fort Lee.

I sat down with Mayor Mark Sokolich to learn about his two-minute his concerns.

Mayor Sokolich, New Jersey has filed a lawsuit to stop the congestion pricing plan but you filed a separate lawsuit on behalf of Fort Lee.

Why did you filed a separate lawsuit?

Mayor Sokolich: There is the money dimension to all of this, the cost to commuters, which will be exorbitant, but there is also a health consideration, which is really the thrust of our lawsuit.

Because of this increased traffic, which the MTA by its own admission is a 20% to 25% increase, that will visit a lot more vehicles to our city and bring a lot more pollution.

Raven: What do you want the federal government to do to mitigate the effects of increased air pollution in Fort Lee?

Mayor Sokolich: Look, is our lawsuit going to stop it?

Will our lawsuit prevented from going forward?

Doubtful.

Very doubtful.

I concede that.

But there has to be some sort of monetary fund or some sort of escrow, something that is set aside for purposes of making sure that we can either prevent folks from getting sick, or if god for bid they do get sick, there are ample dollars to make sure they are treated the proper way.

I understand there are other districts that have been impacted by congestion pricing where funds have been devoted to those areas to protect those residents.

Look, I will say this, Fort Lee behaves heroically every day.

We service a region.

We service hundreds of municipalities, millions of vehicles and we do a great job at it.

We are asked to perform everyday and we do -- extra police and everything we do to get people where the need to go and over that bridge.

But now we are being asked to sacrifice our health more than we already have.

That is not tolerable.

Raven: Was the health aspect the driving force for you?

Mayor Sokolich: Yes, it was.

Raven: It seems almost personal.

Why so?

Mayor Sokolich: It is not so much that it is personal -- I am glad you made that observation.

I get it.

Everybody needs money.

I need money.

The MTA needs money.

I get all of that.

But you are asking Fort Lee to put too much of this burden on our back.

Forget the fact that we now -- look, you can come through our town at certain points, it is concrete congestion.

If there is even a minor incident on the upper or lower level of the bridge or the Alexander Hamilton bridge, we are done, we are cooked.

On Sunday afternoon, my law office is a half-mile from where I live, it takes me 45 minutes to get home on a Sunday -- on a Sunday.

Could you imagine adding 25% more cars to this theater of vehicles already?

That is a concern, again, from a practical standpoint getting cars from where the need to go, but from a health standpoint, that is a lot more exhaust we are breathing in.

I do not want to say it is personal -- I am not getting into any of that, I never will.

It is personal to the extent that I take my job personal to keep my residents safe.

Raven: Therefore.

Has anyone -- Fair point.

Has anyone from the federal government reached out?

Mayor Sokolich: Not to my knowledge.

We are still confident with the attorneys we have and if they had we would have heard.

To my knowledge, and speaking to the congressman, we have not heard from any agencies as of yet.

Raven: Is that disappointing?

Mayor Sokolich: Yeah, sure.

We would love somebody to start talking to us.

How about this?

How about that?

This is not a money grab.

We are not looking to get online and do things that are not related to this.

We view these dollars necessary to keep ourselves healthy.

To mitigate what we know to be the inevitable damages here.

We have kids with asthma.

We have a lot of seniors in Fort Lee.

They are a susceptible part of our demographic.

They will be placed in harm's way.

I cannot say this enough -- the MTA in their own documents that were produced and have gone public -- concede that the communities that are the most environmentally sensitive now will probably be most impacted and Fort Lee was used as an example.

We cannot just sit here and have to deal with this.

You have to hear from us at you have to do the right thing, I am sorry.

Raven: We know Fort Lee's streets are already overburdened with traffic.

How will this increased traffic pollution affect Fort Lee's business owners?

Mayor Sokolich: Business owners here are impacted also.

When there is congestion -- complete and utter congestion here -- nobody is getting anywhere.

People are not getting to school, docketing to doctors appointments, people are not getting to their job interviews.

Patrons of our local businesses are not getting there, either.

If you want to go to the supermarket or to one of the other wonderful businesses we have here in Fort Lee, you are not getting there.

You are not getting there because the roads are crammed up.

I do not know if you can quantify the loss they sustain because of that type of congestion but I have to tell you, it is the equivalent of closing your shop when we have complete congestion in our town.

Raven: How concerned are your constituents about New York's congestion pricing plan?

Mayor Sokolich: We have already covered the health standpoint, and as important is the economic burden that is now placed on a lot of our commuters and a lot of folks who drive in.

We have 50,000 souls in Fort Lee , a lot of us work in Manhattan and go there on a daily basis.

You are talking upwards of $15, even higher during certain congestion time periods, on top of what it costs them ordinarily to cross over the bridge.

It is exorbitant.

I think it will create a scenario for a lot of these commuters where they are just unable to do it and it will have a reverse effect.

I do nothing to it will drive them to carpooling.

I think it will drive them to maybe finding jobs elsewhere.

That is how expensive this is.

Raven: Mayor, thank you for joining me on "NJ Business Beat ."

Mayor Sokolich: Thank you.

Raven: As I mentioned earlier, truckers might be hit the hardest when congestion pricing starts with tolls surging up to $36 and that has companies's word about skyrocketing costs.

I spent down -- I sat down with a guest about what congestion pricing means for the bottom lines of these companies and how it could impact your deliveries this summer.

You say the congestion pricing plan will have a huge impact on how freight is delivered in the region as more traffic is divergent to the George Washington Bridge.

Tell us more about that.

Kendra: Absolutely.

We have been concerned with this proposal from day one because trucks are nondiscretionary in terms of their need to go into the central business district.

They do not have an option.

We cannot put freight on a subway.

For the city to get the goods they need, they rely on trucks.

Out of the gate we have been advocating for an exemption.

It became very clear early on that they were not going to be providing many exemptions, if any at all.

We said, if we need to pay a shipping pricing -- it is about congestion.

Where we typically see those distinctions in the tolls.

The city itself relies on trucks.

90% of their freight comes in via truck.

In terms of the impact, this is just another cost on top of all the other costs that the industry pays in tolls to get in there and it will affect all trucking companies on the New Jersey side and New York and the small businesses that rely on them.

Raven: As it stands there will be an additional surcharge of $24 for small trucks and $36 for large trucks.

How will this impact how trucking companies do business?

Kendra: We are waiting to see what happens.

We may see some companies that say we cannot afford to do this.

Keep in mind, for those trucks that have to cross Port Authority Crossing coming into the zone, they are using ezpass, depending on the time of day they come in, they are paying $92 to $104 to cross the bridge or go through a tunnel and without ezpass, it is $120.

On top of that they could be hit with a $24 or $36 total every time they go into that zone on a daily basis.

There will be a huge financial impact.

Some companies might pass a portion of that on but that is not really help -- the cost of New York City, that will get passed on to customers who will then pass it onto the consumer.

Raven: What are some of the fixes you think will help lessen the burden on trucking and logistics companies?

Kendra: Not ideal.

But if we cannot get an exemption -- let's assume congestion pricing goes forward even with the lawsuits currently in play -- if we can get that $15 a day, it is a much more reasonable cost in terms of the industry.

If they even are successful in reducing congestion, there is a benefit to the trucking industry where we are not having to sit in traffic as long.

That does not mean they can reduce congestion, which we are not entirely convinced will happen.

The other thing is the city has been talking about initiatives for years, both in terms of trying to promote off-peak deliveries and looking at different ways to make freight limit more efficient.

None of these initiatives have actually been implemented.

If we can see some movement in that regard, that would certainly be helpful to the industry, as well.

Raven: Kendra, what are you hearing from members, especially some of the smaller trucking based logistics?

Kendra: This will be a huge hit to them.

We are concerned about the small business impact.

When we reached out to the MTA to confirm the trucking industry -- they affirmed that was the case and they had indicated their data shows about 75% of the truck trips are only coming into the zone once per day.

That might be true but that does not take away from the fact that the other 25%, the ones going in and out of the zone every day are small companies.

The once a day trips are likely regional trucks, unloading the freight and leaving.

Smaller guys are in and out every single day, multiple times, and those are the ones who will really be hurt.

We have been hearing they may have to just not deliver into the city anymore, which will increase costs because you are decreasing competition.

The other thing we are hearing is they might not be able to make investments into their businesses.

That might not be able to hire more and they might have to lay off people.

If they are looking to buy new equipment, they might that have the funds available to do that.

It is a huge impact and they will have to make some serious decisions in terms of how they manage that going forward.

Raven: We know lawsuits have been filed against the congestion pricing plan but what is the Association doing to secure some sort of exemptions for members who have to do business in Manhattan?

Kendra: Right now we are looking at a legislative strategy.

We are trying to work with our state legislature to -- the legislation that would allow for the once a day at $15 per day just like passenger vehicles.

That is the focus right now that we are looking at.

We will be participating in the public hearings, the comment period for the MTA.

Figuring out how much of a financial impact on the trucking industry which becomes a financial impact of those who live and work in the zone, as well.

We will be participating in those hearings.

We will see where things play out with those two efforts.

Raven: Kendra Hems, thank you for joining me.

Kendra: Absolutely.

Thank you for having me.

Raven: Before we leave you, here is a look at the top business headlines from the week.

Governor Murphy unveils a record-breaking $55 million budget and business groups are zeroing in on a costly tax.

The governor proposed a corporate transit fee, a 2.5% tax on the wealthiest corporations.

This comes just months after the governor's surcharge.

The tax would raise $859 million in funding for NJ transit in fiscal year 2026.

The governor said this new tact is critical to ensuring NJ transit can stay afloat.

>> It will provide a dedicated funding stream for NJ transit at no additional cost to our working families.

With this fee, we will ask the biggest corporations with net incomes greater than $10 million to support NJ transit's future and we will raise this revenue without placing any new burdens on small and medium-sized businesses.

In fact, nearly 2500 companies will see their taxes decrease from last year.

Let me take this opportunity to thank in advance the big companies that will be stepping up.

Many of them have partnered with our administration since day one and they have been essential in getting our economy back on its feet, post-pandemic.

Raven: Business groups wasted no time reacting to this new tax, with many feeling betrayed by the proposal of a new tax just months after another tax was wiped away.

Two people said this new tax would make the state undesirable for businesses looking to open here.

>> When a promise is made and a promise is broken we cannot invest and we cannot predicted the future to make those investments.

This is not just bad policy when you do an about-face 360 on two weeks notice, it is terrible policy.

>> Not only are they paying for something that I would argue is not their responsibility to pay for, but they are also paying for something they do not have access to.

Raven: The governor also promised more tax relief for middle-class families and seniors.

Through the anchor property tax program, child tax credits and more, the governor said the budget includes $3.5 billion in tax relief.

Governor Murphy also proposed fully funding New Jersey schools funding formula and for the first time in state history and expanding universal pre-k. Anheuser-Busch and the Teamsters union have reached an agreement to barely avoid a strike at the company's U.S. plants, including the one in Newark.

The strike was scheduled to start this Thursday.

We covered a practice ticket by workers at the Newark plant calling for higher pay, better health care and increase job security.

The two side struck a deal that include wage increases, pension contributions, increased vacation days and a $2500 bonus for each Teamsters member.

A vote is scheduled for next week.

That does it for us this week.

Remember to subscribe to our NJ Spotlight News YouTube channel to get alerted when we post new episodes and clips.

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I am Raven Santana.

Next week we take a deeper dive into the governor's budget proposal, talking to the business community about its impact on taxpayers.

Thank you for watching and we will see you next weekend.

>> Funding for "NJ Business Beat with Raven Santana" provided by NJMEP, a partner to New Jersey's manufacturing industry, focused on productivity, performance, and strategic development.

More on NJMEP.org.

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