in our Spotlight on Business Report tonight the legislature also finally took up one of the most debated questions in our state's history whether Central Jersey exists it does and some lawmakers want to give a boost to tourism there along with two other prized Industries historical sites and agribusiness senior correspondent Joanna gagas is at the state house with the latest Joanna Brianna a package of four bills aimed at improving New Jersey's tourism industry moved easily through two assembly committees today the tourism gaming and the Arts committee and the Agriculture and food security committee the bills would invest more money into the state's tourism advertising efforts and would create more Regional coordination so that some of the tourism wealth would go to locations other than the shore this is going to allocate 2.5 million dollars to agritourism and what's nutty about is that we've never done this before and we are the Garden State let's celebrate let's promote our agricultural Heritage and when we do that we lift up local economies the idea behind one bill promoting the state's agritourism industry think apple and pumpkin picking or visiting one of the state's wineries or breweries the bill would help regions and individual locations advertise to get folks to visit more establishments during those outings when they come to a community to go apple picking it's where can I have dinner where can I have lunch what other activities can I take my kids to it is doing those trails and and going from one Farm to another Farm to another farm and then okay where can we stay overnight one bill very bravely and perhaps for the first time takes on the age-old question is there a central Jersey by the way the answer is yes to that question just so we're clear about this the bill would shift from six tourism zones to Simply North Central and South and then within the O's let's have the flexibility for those regions to then further divide because we know for example North Jersey closer to the city it's Metropolitan and then going out west they're skiing and the same thing holds true in all the other regions there are different flavors associated with it another of the bills passed includes a roadside signage program so drivers on state roads can more easily see nearby historic sites an important effort as the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary adding attention to some of New Jersey's historical sites which may go overlooked by a lot of people even in New Jersey the idea is that tourists spend dollars when they visit New Jersey or stay in New Jersey that that can be staying in our hotels and motels visiting our restaurants they also buy gas here and pay tolls here and other items that are subject to State taxation that all generates economic development for the state this is about New Jersey's economy this is about making sure that we are taking full advantage of the amazing state that we live in the bill package received support from several of the State's Commerce and business associations our tourism economy has not recovered from the pandemic fully and and we have pockets of the state where the jobs aren't there the wages benefits aren't there the way we all want um and and these bills will help better plan for their the growth of the economic um economy and tourism these bills will better support that industry the bills still have a long way to go but the goal for events like the World Cup coming to New Jersey in 2026. in Trenton I'm Joanna Gagis, back to you Bri all right thanks Joana