A new report from Moody’s finds that New Jersey is one of 2 states, the other being Illinois, ill-prepared financially for a future recession citing pension liabilities and budget reserves. John Reitmeyer of NJ Spotlight writes on the policy implications for New Jersey as the state enters the pivotal stage of budget negotiations for FY 2020.

CNBC has rated New Jersey’s cost of doing business as worst in the nation. In an op-ed in ROI-NJ, the president of Trenton-based Tektite Industries writes that New Jersey’s cost of doing business, driven by taxes and new government mandates, may drive his company to relocate across the river to Delaware.

GSI’s president Regina M. Egea was quoted by ROI-NJ’s Anjalee Khemlani in a report on the State Treasurer’s April revenue report:

“New Jersey has an opportunity to get on the more competitive track by limiting government spending and investing in what grows our economy not grows our government burden even further. Record revenue collections should not present an opportunity to look for more tax increases, but rather an opportunity to get our state back on the road to prosperity.”

As the state legislature and Governor Murphy work towards enacting a state budget by a June 30th deadline, the editorial board of the Press of Atlantic City calls for an agreement that reflects the perilous reality of the state’s fiscal health:

“New Jersey’s financial problems demand solutions, and these are reasonable given the hole the state is in. Credit-rating agency S&P Global says the state has the second worst pension funding ratio in the nation and is dead last in making progress toward funding even the bare minimum of its growing pension costs.

Gov. Murphy’s approach would dodge the fiscal bullet and increase spending further beyond what’s sustainable. That’s just digging the hole deeper.

Sweeney and the Economic and Fiscal Policy Workgroup want state government to face reality and start regaining the strength to serve the interests of the public. Sooner or later that must happen, and since later is just more painful, starting with the new budget is in everyone’s interest.”

In an opinion piece published in the New York Post, Steven Malanga of the Manhattan Institute writes on how “blue states” are continuing to sink in red ink even as the national economy is booming:

“…states face big obstacles to continued recovery. Short of cash, many states spent more than they took in for years, piling up debt or using financial gimmicks to paper over deficits. One recent study found that, stretching back to before the Great Recession, 10 states have consistently spent more than they collected — including New Jersey, Illinois, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland and New York.”

In a sobering op-ed in the Asbury Park Press, Ralph Albert Thomas, CEO and executive director of the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants, writes on the advice his members are giving the state’s residents and businesses:

“…a recent NJCPA member survey found that 75 percent of CPAs have advised some clients to relocate their homes or businesses out of New Jersey in order to reduce their tax burden.

New Jersey must break its destructive tax-and-spend habit by addressing the structural imbalances in its budget in order to put the state on sounder financial footing.”

In a riveting opinion piece published on NJ.com, North Plainfield resident Philip Perinelli makes a statement that thousands of longtime Garden State residents are saying each year: This is why I’m leaving New Jersey.

“…the bitterness would stay with me and increase year after year, as I watch my taxes inexorably increase and my quality of life move in the opposite direction.”

Ryan Hutchins, Trenton Bureau Chief for Politico New Jersey, reviews the latest Rutgers-Eagleton poll, conducted in collaboration with the New Jersey Business and Industry Association (NJBIA), which finds growing discontent among New Jersey residents with affordability issues and the high level of taxation in the Garden State:

“When it comes to residents’ overwhelming frustration with taxes and other financial issues in the state, little has changed in the past year-and-a-half,” Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling, said in a statement that accompanied the poll results. “New Jerseyans across the board — Democrats and Republicans alike — continue to be upset with what it costs to live in this state, what the government is doing about it, and with the idea of any new taxes.”

In an op-ed in the Asbury Park Press, Peter Reinhart, director of the Kislak Real Estate Institute at Monmouth University addressed the issue of “fairness” for taxpayers and public employees when it comes to negotiating New Jersey’s ongoing fiscal crisis:

““Fairness” goes both ways. The taxpayers who have to pay for the costs have the right to see that every reasonable effort is made to align the retirement benefits for public employees with the taxpayers’ ability to pay. Given the fiscal realities of today, it is not fair that public employees are unwilling to agree to modify their health care plans in line with what the rest of the taxpayers receive.

Public employees have the right to be treated fairly. But fairness does not include casting a blind eye to the realities of the fiscal condition of the state and the impact on the citizens of New Jersey.”

The editorial board of the Asbury Park Press takes a look at how the 2016 agreement to replenish the state’s Transportation Trust Fund has set of a recurring series of tax increases for Garden State motorists:

“The consumption of gas in New Jersey has been tamped down largely by two things: more fuel-efficient cars, including electric vehicles and hybrids, and fewer motorists from New York and Pennsylvania, where gas prices are higher, buying their gas in New Jersey.  As a consequence, less gas tax revenue has been generated by out-of-state drivers.  The more New Jersey raises its tax, the more it will be a factor in dampening revenue.“