- Hi, everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kickoff the program with a longtime friend and colleague, Michele Siekerka, President and CEO of New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

Good to see you, Michele.

- Great to see you again, Steve.

- Let's talk about the proposed tax hikes that you and your organization representing... How many businesses do you represent?

- Oh, thousands, thousands across the Great State of New Jersey.

- And the greatest concerns about Governor Murphy's proposed "revenue enhancers," which ones are they, and why are they a concern?

- So the Governor's proposed budget includes $1.2 billion of new sales tax on things that are going to directly impact New Jersey residents across the State of New Jersey.

For example, the Governor now wants to tax participatory sports.

That means, when you take your children bowling, or to the amusement park, or you go out and play golf, these are the things we want to tax, right?

In addition, we have increased taxes on Realty Transfer Fee.

Let's talk about this for a minute, this is really important.

Some would call it a mansion tax, where we already have 1%, but I gotta tell you, a million dollar home in New Jersey isn't too far off from where the median is today, we're a very expensive state, right?

And I want you to think- - What's the proposed increase?

What's the proposed increase?

- Another percent.

So we wanna put 2% tax on a home of a million dollars, and 3% on 2 million or more.

Now, let's focus on the million dollar though for a minute.

Think about someone who the only asset they have in their portfolio is their residence that they bought when they were a young person, a young couple, a family, right?

Now they're ready to retire, or they're ready to go into assisted living perhaps.

This is used oftentimes to fund the next phase of someone's life, and we wanna go in and we wanna grab that money away from them.

And then see if we have the sin taxes, taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, cannabis, right?

Particularly, when we talk about gambling and cannabis for a moment, let's just talk about new emerging industries here in the State of New Jersey, right, where we're actually doing well in generating revenue.

So what's our answer?

Let's take advantage of them and tax it even more, and perhaps drive people back, for example, in cannabis to the black market, we don't wanna do that.

- But, Michele, what about if the Governor and his team were to say, "Look, we need revenue, because the revenue from the Federal Government that largely came in the last several years based on this federal COVID money, it ain't there anymore, and we need more revenue to balance this budget, which has to be balanced, again, based on the constitution of New Jersey."

You say what to that?

- Well, I say we shouldn't have overspent for the last four years, to be honest, okay?

We knew this fiscal cliff was gonna come.

Look, we're going from a $37 billion budget seven years ago to a $56 billion budget, all right?

That's like an almost 70% increase, that is not sustainable.

And we said all along, "Let's be careful about how we're using that federal money."

Remember, we had an additional $10 billion in this state for quite some time, $6 billion from the Federal Government that was COVID relief, and 4 billion of borrowings, the only state to borrow during COVID.

- Okay.

Now you've mentioned the Federal Government several times, I started the conversation talking about federal COVID money drying up, it's not there anymore.

The other thing is that there are things happening on the federal level that clearly impact the state.

Again, we are taping on the 22nd of April, don't know exactly how things are gonna play out.

But let's just say, right now, and for the foreseeable future, the proposed tariffs, on the part of the Federal Government and the Trump administration, has real impact on certain businesses, maybe all of us.

What are your greatest concerns about those tariffs, which seem to be, the policy seems to be, changing on a regular basis, but they're not going away?

What do you say to business leaders and others?

- The big challenge is uncertainty, for sure.

Businesses can't make investments if they don't have predictability and certainty.

So these businesses have frozen their hand on the wallet right now, and we see that.

The biggest concern, look, let me be honest, we have manufacturers that are on both sides of this issue.

I have manufacturers who are saying, "Bring it on, because I can compete," and that's the, you know, manufacturers saying, "I'll take the short-term pain for the long-term gain of bringing opportunity and jobs back to America," that's a real voice out there.

However, the short-term pain has unintended casualties built into it, like, small companies who today are sourcing 100% of their product from China, and can afford to do so at 145%.

I've been working with one such company recently who only has enough inventory for about three months, we need to find them a pathway, so they don't go out of business.

- So what do you think that business, and, again, it's 145% now, as we speak on the 22nd of April, we don't know what's gonna happen moving forward, whatever deals are gonna be cut, negotiations, what do you believe that business owner would say to President Trump and those, like, Peter Navarro and the administration who are proposing and pushing for those tariffs, particularly higher in China?

- Yeah, so that business owner said, "If I could only have five minutes with President Trump, what I would tell him is that, 'President, I believe in your long-term vision, however, it's gonna take time for us to get there, and, in the meantime, you need to give us relief.

So if I have a window of opportunity of a year, or 18 months to move my supply chain, I could probably do that, but I can't do it on the flip of a dime.

I need you to give me that relief, I need you to give me that time, so that I could plan and organize.'"

- Michele, new Governor comes in in January, 2026.

Number one action the new Governor, be that Governor a Democrat or Republican, that they should take from a policy perspective as it relates to promoting and supporting the business community of New Jersey would be what?

- Oh, create a Department of Commerce on day one.

Now, when I say "Create a Department of Commerce," it doesn't have to specifically be that, right?

But business needs a seat at the immediate table, not the kids' table, and not the table in the kitchen, okay?

We need to be at the big dining room table sitting front and center, it needs to be cabinet-level position where business has a voice in the everyday decision-making of the next administration.

- But, respectfully, Michele, right after this segment with you, we have a conversation with Tim Sullivan, who's the CEO of the Economic Development Authority in the State, which is of the government, but not an agency, it's a quasi, if you will, entity with its own board.

Isn't that that entity?

- No, it's not.

Tim is fantastic, I'm giving huge props and shout outs to Tim Sullivan and everything he does at the NJEDA, they are the bank, they're the bank, right?

They bring programming, however, they do not engage in policy.

We need a business policy person sitting at the big table on day one.

- And there is a Secretary of Commerce in the Federal government, to be clear, correct?

- Correct.

- Okay, last question.

Real quick, we did this Gen Z Q&A in front of a great group of leaders, disproportionately younger, but you and I were talking about leadership, number one takeaway, 30 seconds or less from that conversation, that should give us hope about the leaders of tomorrow.

- Yeah, I was really jazzed up, not just at who was in the room, but how they engaged and participated.

I saw amazing leadership in this next gen coming up, and I left that room saying, "Wow, I have hope in tomorrow."

You know, we get caught up in this perception every day of Gen Z and, you know, challenges, and work ethic, and blah blah, blah, right?

That day, who was in that room and the award winners, what an amazing group of future leaders for our Great State of New Jersey.

- Reason to be hopeful.

And, also, let me just say that we have a media partnership with New Jersey Business, which is the business publication of NJBIA.

Michele Siekerka, President and CEO of NJ, New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

Thank you, my friend, we'll talk soon.

- Thanks so much, Steve.

- 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.

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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.