[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with our media partner, Anthony Russo.

Tony, can I call you Tony?

You are Anthony Russo officially, but Tony Russo is the President of the Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey and publisher of Commerce Magazine, our media partner.

It's good to see you, Tony.

- Good to see you, Steve, thanks for having me on.

- You got this, we're taping this a few days before the state budget is supposed to be legally constitutionally established in New Jersey, June 30th.

Let's get this one out of the way.

We don't know what's gonna happen with the corporate tax being "sunset", let's not talk inside baseball.

What is the corporate tax A and B?

What the heck does it mean for it to sunset?

- Yeah, so thanks Steve.

So if a company is labeled a "C corporation", they would be subject to the corporate business tax commonly referred to as CBT.

New Jersey right now has one of the highest in the country at 11.5%.

A few years ago, they added a 2.5% surcharge that we understand is gonna sunset.

That would be a good thing 'cause that would drop us back down- - Meaning it goes away.

Sorry for interrupting.

Sunset means it goes away.

- Yeah.

Sunset means it goes away.

But just the two and half percent surcharge.

We still think nine percent's high when you compare it to Pennsylvania, some other states.

But at least it's a move in the right direction where some of our companies will get to save money.

And just to kind of put it into perspective, the state budget, the top three revenue generators gross income tax, sales tax, and right behind sales tax, the corporate business tax to the tune of about 4 billion a year.

So it's a significant number.

- Last time we had the governor, and we will have the governor again in the next few months.

The governor has made the argument, and many in his administration have made the argument that New Jersey is very business friendly and it is becoming even more business friendly.

You buy that?

- It's a complicated question.

You know, there are a lot of good things about New Jersey and there are things that still need improvement.

Regulatory, framework, taxes.

I think we could do better.

I really do.

I think we could be more competitive.

We could attract more companies.

Not to say that companies don't come in and start their businesses, but Steve, for every company that we see coming into New Jersey maybe there are two or three that leave for a lot of reasons.

So business decisions are complicated.

- Where are they going?

I'm sorry to interrupt.

Where are they going?

- It depends on the industry.

I mean a lot of them go to Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Delaware.

I think with the advent of technology and technology getting better, I mean, unless you have to physically be in a state, you could probably operate your business remote, right?

We've all experienced remote work since the pandemic.

So a lot of companies are looking at their bottom line dollar and looking at the cost of doing business.

And if you could do the cost of doing business somewhere where it's more cost effective, you know, that's a great business decision to make.

Right?

We hope, CINJ hopes that they stay here 'cause we enjoy having them as members.

But again, you know, to answer your question, I think it could be better and I think there could be more that can be done to help businesses stay here and grow here.

- Right.

You mentioned regulatory issues.

Let's break that down and get more, dare I use the term "granular".

Give us one concrete example of a regulatory, a state regulatory issue or a situation that is of significant concern to the business community.

- Right.

So again, getting a little technical.

There's something called environmental justice which obviously is good intended.

You know, it's to help these communities where maybe these plants, these legacy plants, have been around.

But there are also located, and there's a lot of... and I'm gonna abbreviate to EJ, being environmental justice.

There are a lot of companies that if you're subject to the environmental justice rules, they just went final earlier this year, or actually recently.

A lot of companies have trepidations in the sense of how much time is it gonna take if I have to build a new plant here or if I have to modify a permit.

So I always go back to the intent, is always good, and I think our companies support the intent of it.

And that's community outreach.

That's community education, lowering emissions if you can, reduce some pollution.

But you know, again, when a business makes a decision, time is a factor, it costs money.

So if there's no certainty as far as how long it's gonna take to get a permit, that could be an issue or get your permit modified.

You know, and again, the department has been very good in trying to understand our issues and working with us.

And I'm sure we're gonna- - You mean Department of Environmental Protection?

- Yeah, I'm sorry, Steve.

Yeah.

Department of Environmental Protection.

So that's just one example, and there's a lot going on with electrification.

I know the Governor's Energy Master Plan.

- Yeah.

- You know, a lot of our companies are worried quite frankly, what's the, you know, what's the future gonna hold in terms of whether you have boilers and other equipment that's gonna be electrified.

I mean, there's a lot going on the regulatory side.

I mean, that's my background.

I used to work at DEP, but when I think of it, it's been a year since I've seen this kind of activity with the flood hazard rules.

And if you don't know what they are, it's gonna change development again.

Rightfully so, 'cause a lot of areas of the state flood.

And so if you happen to be in a flood plain, you gotta adjust for that.

Again, that means money, that means time.

So, it'll keep our businesses very busy in the near future just to comply with all the different initiatives coming out of Trenton.

- Let me just play devil's advocate here.

But those environmental laws, those issues, those laws or those regulations regarding flooding, those initiatives the governor talking about going green and there are certain deadlines that has created in his clean energy plan.

And we've done a whole range of programming on that.

People who are pro and advocates of it, and those who are concerned about it, particularly look at our interview with Senator Tony Bucco, who has real concerns about the Governor's Clean Energy Initiative.

With that being said, there's gotta be a balance between wanting to attract business, but also having a clean environment, going green, being concerned about flooding.

Is it the regulations or the way the agencies manage the permits you need for the regulations, which is really about inefficiency and red tape really.

- Look, it's a combination of both, right?

It's how the regulations are gonna be implemented but it's also... We can't put our state in an economic disadvantage unless our neighbors are doing it too, right?

So whether it's climate change, and again, and I wanna stress this, all the members that I talk to all want to do the right thing obviously.

They live here, they raise their families here, they want clean air, they want clean water.

It's how you get there, right?

That's always the issue.

And it's how much is it gonna cost in terms of administrative requirements and studies and permit modifications.

And that's where we gotta strike the balance in terms of efficiencies and in bringing down maybe permit fees and things making it easier to comply and the companies will do that.

I think that's really the issue, is what the cost of compliance is.

- Before I let you go, real quick, Commerce Magazine recognized companies that care.

What kind of companies and why is it so important that they show they care in the community.

By the way, many of whom are underwriters of our work.

Go ahead.

- Well, I appreciate that, Steve.

We're proud of the fact that we kind of coined the term "companies that care" about nine years ago.

And each year we ask our companies, "Tell us about the good things you've done for your community and your, you know, local charities."

And we collect those stories and we have an independent panel of judges, you know, pick winners and we celebrate them through the magazine, but also celebrate them through a breakfast reception.

And we just had that a couple weeks ago.

And it goes from realtors to environmental companies to utilities.

So nice thing about CIANJ is we represent all the sectors.

So it's really good to get them all in a room and kind of hear what each other are doing and they learn from each other and we're proud of that.

We've done that now nine years in a row.

- As Tony Russo, President of the Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey and publisher of Commerce Magazine, one of our media partners.

Tony, thank you so much, my friend.

- Thank you, Steve.

Thank you.

- You got it.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato Is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

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