Garden State Initiative (GSI) analysis of the state’s monthly jobs report for December 2018 shows the state economy lacks forward momentum. The report showed job losses in December paired with a shrinking workforce over the year.
“This has been a troubling week for New Jersey’s economy,” said Garden State Initiative President Regina M. Egea. “We’ve seen the slow job growth of recent months come to a full stop and state revenue falling well below projections. These two reports send a clear message to the Administration to avoid further policy shifts that would hamper job creation.”
“While the Governor is offering his State of the State address today, there can be no mistake that the state of our economy is tenuous as reflected in weak state tax revenue,” said Garden State Initiative President Regina M. Egea. “The underpinnings of our state economy, with high taxes and heavy debt, leave us ill-prepared for an inevitable economic cycle slowdown.”
GSI’s president, Regina M. Egea, was interviewed by Politico New Jersey’s Ryan Hutchins for a piece previewing Governor Phil Murphy’s State of the State address and first year in office:
“They’re talking past one another, almost,” said Regina Egea, president of the Garden State Initiative think tank and a former chief of staff to Christie. “They’ve got to figure out how to work together. Nobody’s getting what they want.”
The Garden State Initiative is dedicated to making New Jersey a place where families and businesses can thrive.
We are a nonpartisan research and educational organization that offers practical free-market solutions to the state and local challenges facing New Jersey.
We work with the public, policymakers, and partners throughout the state to build a sustainable, effective economic infrastructure for today and tomorrow.
We stand with job creators big and small, entrepreneurs, and hard-working citizens to help make their voices heard in the policy debate.
Latest News
In an op-ed published in the Asbury Park Press , Senate President Steve Sweeney illustrates the urgent need for New Jersey to address its $150 billion unfunded liability for public employee pension and benefits through the bi-partisan reforms suggested by the Path to Progress NJ report. While the pension fund can go bankrupt, the state cannot - leaving taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars of debt that can only be paid by massive tax increases that would impact every family in the state.
John Reitmeyer of NJ Spotlight writes on the outlook for New Jersey’s economy in 2019, with analysis offered by GSI’s president Regina Egea:
“But Regina Egea, president of the Garden State Initiative, a right-leaning think tank based in Morristown, suggested there is also some cause for concern in her own recent assessment of the state economy. A former state Treasury official who served under Republican Gov. Chris Christie, Egea said growth in the state’s overall labor market is still trailing the nation’s as a whole. Murphy’s refusal to rule out new tax hikes in 2019 is also a concern, she said.
“We continue to see the effects of a hostile climate for business, and the governor’s threat of new and higher taxes creates an environment of uncertainty for residents and businesses,” Egea said.”
In analyzing the New Jersey Business & Industry Association’s annual Business Outlook Survey, the editorial board of the Press of Atlantic City cites numerous factors for the residents of South Jersey to be concerned about for the region’s economy - most originate from state government in Trenton in the form of taxes, regulation and higher labor costs.
The editorial board of the Press of Atlantic City takes a look at the recent report by S&P Global on pension and debt obligations of the 50 states and calls for action on the pension reforms suggested in the Path to Progress NJ report led by Senate President Steve Sweeney.
In an op-ed published in the Asbury Park Press, Richard F. Keevey, the former budget director and comptroller for New Jersey appointed by two governors from each political party, outlines the dire fiscal straights ahead for the Garden State and offers an endorsement of the pension and benefit reforms offered by Senate President Steve Sweeney in his working group’s Path to Progress NJ report.
If nothing is done to address New Jersey’s crippling pension and benefits liabilities there will “not be many people left” in New Jersey.
That’s the stark message the Bridgewater Courier News took away from a recent visit by New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney to the Somerset County Employer Legislative Committee where he discussed the Path to Progress NJ proposals to address New Jersey’s looming fiscal crisis.
Now that Amazon has announced that its HQ2 project will not be coming to Newark, John Reitmeyer of NJ Spotlight writes that some elected officials, like Governor Murphy, suggest that it was an achievement for Brick City to even be a finalist for the massive project, as if New Jersey should be content with a participation trophy. Other elected officials see it differently as a commentary on New Jersey’s onerous corporate taxes and high cost of living.
At Garden State Initiative, we’ve researched how the state of Connecticut represents a cautionary tale for New Jersey’s leaders. In analyzing a recent report by the Cato Institute, National Review Online’s Jack Crowe, takes a look at how migration from the high-tax Nutmeg State is shaping that state’s governor’s race.
New Jersey’s unfunded pension liability continues to be the “800 pound gorilla” in the room for our state’s fiscal and economic future. As reported by John Reitmeyer in NJSpotlight.com, a recent report by S&P Global found that, although there has been some minor progress, our pension system's funding ratio is second-to-last among all U.S. states and places dead last for funding even the bare minimum of its growing pension costs.
In an op-ed published on the website of the Asbury Park Press, Peter Reinhart, director of the Kislak Real Estate Institute at Monmouth University, chair of New Jersey Future and a member of the Economic and Fiscal Policy Working Group, takes a look at Governor Phil Murphy’s calls for New Jersey to develop an “innovation economy” without addressing the state’s ongoing public employee pension and benefits crisis.
