GOVERNMENT THAT WORKS
Improving the Function and Transparency of Government
GOVERNMENT THAT WORKS
When it comes to Unemployment Insurance, Motor Vehicles, NJ Transit, or other state agencies, our residents too often encounter government agencies that fail when they are needed most. The Garden State Initiative works to innovate the function of government agencies to best serve our citizens while promoting transparency to the public.
STAY IN THE LOOP WITH NEW JERSEY GOVERNMENT THAT WORKS
44th
Road Conditions
50th for road condition and cost effectiveness (Source: Reason Foundation).
#2
Public School Ranking
Public School ranking: #2 in academic performance, spending 3rd most at $20,021.
$28,643
Pension Liabilities
Unfunded pension liabilities in New Jersey sit at $28,643 per capita, 46th in the U.S. (Source: ALEC)
F
Financial Health Rating
New Jersey is rated F for fiscal management and public debt (Source: Truth in Accounting).
FEATURED POST
PODCAST: FIGHTING THE BUDGET WARS IN TRENTON (WITH BRIAN BERGEN)
November 10, 2023
Welcome to the GSI Briefing podcast – hosted by Regina Egea, President of the Garden State Initiative. In this episode, Regina is joined by New Jersey State Assemblyman Brian Bergen, who has served in the legislature since January 2020 and where he is a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee. Notably, Assemblyman Bergen is also a combat veteran, having served…
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THE LATEST WORK ON GOVERNMENT THAT WORKS
GSI’s EGEA: Combination of Declining Revenues & Rising Unemployment Spell Trouble for New Jersey
November 17, 2023
Governor Murphy and the State Legislature need to confront the reality of declining revenue and propose solutions to reduce spending…
PODCAST: FIGHTING THE BUDGET WARS IN TRENTON (WITH BRIAN BERGEN)
November 10, 2023
Welcome to the GSI Briefing podcast – hosted by Regina Egea, President of the Garden State Initiative. In this episode,…
GSI’s EGEA: The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia coincident indexes report is, “is another indication that New Jersey’s economic outlook is bleak.”
October 25, 2023
Garden State Initiative’s president, Regina M. Egea, issued the following statement on the The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia September…
GSI’s EGEA: September ‘23 Jobs Report
October 19, 2023
Garden State Initiative’s president, Regina M. Egea, issued the following statement on the September ‘23 Jobs Report: “Today’s report forecasts…
GSI’s Egea: “Let’s call this budget what it is: A fiscal calamity”
June 30, 2023
Garden State Initiative’s president, Regina M. Egea, issued the following statement on the passage of New Jersey’s Fiscal Year 2024…
GSI’s Smith Talks Transit on “Power and Politics”
May 1, 2023
This past weekend, William J. Smith, GSI's Director of Communications & Media Relations was interviewed on News 12 New Jersey's…
Phil Murphy’s proposed budget includes nearly 2,000 unfilled state jobs
April 5, 2023
People interested in working for the state of New Jersey may soon see more opportunities to do just that. The…
New Jersey ranks at the rock bottom financially, according to a new study | Opinion
December 20, 2022
By Thomas J. Healey It’s easy for New Jersey taxpayers to feel positive about their government’s financial condition. First full…
This is why it’s time to revisit New Jersey’s clean energy options | Opinion
November 17, 2022
New Jersey families have been hard hit this year by inflation and it’s about to get worse as PSEG recently…
How much will NJ taxpayers and public workers get slammed by health plan hikes?
October 14, 2022
As health insurance sign-up season begins, everyone is bracing for hikes in their premiums. But one group already knows that…
Op-Ed: Missteps behind America’s energy security challenges | Opinion
July 28, 2022
The following op-ed appeared on NJ.com and in the Jersey Journal. By Regina M. Egea When the president made the…
NorthJersey.com: New Jersey’s pension fund is crossing the tipping point | Opinion
December 15, 2021
By Andrew Biggs and Thomas J. Healey As members of the New Jersey Legislature consider a proposal to add themselves…
NorthJersey.com: NJ public pensions face fiscal peril as new police and fire retirees grow, report says
December 14, 2021
By Dustin Racioppi New Jersey’s pension system for public employees costs more than most other states while offering "generous" benefits that…
PODCAST: NJ Pension Fund Crossing the Tipping Point: Looming Impact of More Retirees than Workers
December 14, 2021
In this episode of The GSI Briefing , Regina Egea is joined by Andrew Biggs, Ph.D. of the American Enterprise…
NJ.com: The cost of public transit in New Jersey is being paid by those with the least access to it
November 15, 2021
By Jonathan Peters and Richard FlanaganAs the authors of Garden State Initiative’s new report, “The Road to Equitable Transportation Policy…
NJ Spotlight News: Opinion: Why NJ’s not yet ready for roads teeming with electric vehicles
November 8, 2021
By Regina M. Egea and Sal RisalvatoIn 2020 New Jersey’s Electric Vehicle Act set an ambitious goal of getting 330,000…
Press of Atlantic City: South Jersey deserves fair share of transportation
November 3, 2021
By Regina Egea and Christina RennaFor many years, South Jersey residents have complained that while paying their fair share of…
PODCAST: The Road to Equitable Transportation Policy in New Jersey
October 27, 2021
In this episode of The GSI Briefing, Regina Egea is joined by Dr. Jonathan Peters, who along with his colleagues, Drs.…
PODCAST: NJ’s Energy Master Plan: What It Will Cost You
August 18, 2021
In this episode of the The GSI Briefing, GSI’s president Regina Egea was joined by Rick Mroz, former president of…
NJ Spotlight: Nonpartisan group wants administration to put price on clean-energy transition ASAP
August 5, 2021
By Tom Johnson, Energy & Environmental Issues ReporterA nonpartisan research group has called on the Murphy administration to put a…
NJ Spotlight: Now is our chance to transform New Jersey and the future of our cities
June 21, 2021
By Regina M. EgeaA strong and stable economic future for New Jersey as a whole, as well as specifically our…
NJ Spotlight: Cost of NJ’s green-energy plan remains unknown
May 6, 2021
By Tom JohnsonThe state is hiring an outside consultant to analyze what its transition to clean energy will cost ratepayers,…
NJ.com: Our tolls are paying for NJ Transit’s failures
April 26, 2021
By Regina M. EgeaA dysfunctional Motor Vehicle Commission operation since last July. An unnecessary gas tax last August. Double-digit toll…
GSI’s Egea Talks Energy on NJCPA’s IssuesWatch Podcast
April 13, 2021
From the New Jersey Society of CPAs IssuesWatch Podcast, hosted by Jeff Kaszerman, vice president of government relations: The vast…
Bond Buyer: Murphy’s full pension payment revives debate over New Jersey overhaul
February 25, 2021
By Paul BurtonGov. Phil Murphy’s call for New Jersey to make its first full pension contribution in 25 years is…
APP.com: How the Police Bank Millions Through Their Union Contracts
February 8, 2021
By Andrew Ford, Asbury Park Press, and Agnes Chang, Jeff Kao and Agnel Philip, ProPublicaOne town’s police contract guaranteed a…
GSI Briefing: Transit and Transportation Priorities Post-COVID
February 1, 2021
The restructuring of traditional office arrangements and the widespread adoption of home offices are together challenging our region's transportation authorities…
NJ.com: COVID changed how we work. Experts say commuting in N.J. must now change, too.
January 28, 2021
By Larry HiggsTransit agencies have to make changes to their service and operations to prepare for how the work week…
NJ Spotlight: Pension payments, maintaining a robust surplus, promised tax relief: NJ’s looming budget challenges
January 8, 2021
By John ReitmeyerComing off a year marked by credit-rating downgrades and major revenue losses triggered by the pandemic, managing the…
Wall Street Journal: The N.J. Teachers Who Get Paid Not to Teach
January 4, 2021
By Jon Riches and Justin MeyersShould New Jersey’s taxpayers—strained under one of the heaviest tax burdens in the country—be paying…
Trentonian: Of course we should merge transportation agencies … and everything else
December 28, 2020
By Jeff EdelsteinEvery so often - more often than Halley’s Comet, less often than the number of Hayley’s you’ll meet…
NJ Spotlight News: How spending on NJ’s transportation projects this year quietly went from $2B to $2.6B
November 23, 2020
By John ReitmeyerDespite revenue losses triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration has turbocharged spending on transportation projects…
ROI-NJ: GSI report – Gas Tax fails to deliver infrastructure improvements
July 15, 2020
By Emily Bader As New Jersey reopens and residents return back to work, many more are on the roads utilizing…
NJ.com: It’s time for NJ’s public employees to make some sacrifices
June 18, 2020
By Michele N. SiekerkaWith New Jersey in the throes of a historic economic crisis, it is abundantly clear that tough…
GSI calls on Gov. Murphy to Veto Toll Increases on Turnpike, Parkway & AC Expressway
May 27, 2020
Garden State Initiative’s president, Regina M. Egea, issued the following statement calling upon Governor Phil Murphy to veto the toll…
Bloomberg: Murphy to Beg, Borrow With Pledge of Billions for N.J. Pensions
May 22, 2020
By Elise Young & David VoreacosIn the aftermath of the new coronavirus, New Jersey’s finances have been a blur of…
Center Square NJ: Federal stimulus package reportedly includes $1.25 billion for New Jersey Transit
March 31, 2020
by Joe Chen(The Center Square) – The $2 trillion stimulus package passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday reportedly…
NJ Spotlight: Toll-Hike Plan for Turnpike, Parkway Gets Mixed Reviews
March 19, 2020
by John ReitmeyerA plan to hike tolls on both the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike to help fund…
Politico: Coronavirus turmoil scrambles state budget talks, threatens pension gains
March 13, 2020
by Ryan HutchinsThe financial turmoil that has chased the coronavirus across the globe is threatening to upend state budget talks,…
Press of Atlantic City: Residents shouldn’t overpay to make NJ clean energy leader
February 13, 2020
Gov. Phil Murphy outlined the state’s new Energy Master Plan at Stockton University recently, adding some policies and initiatives to…
ProPublica: What Happens When a Health Plan Has No Limits? An Acupuncturist Earns $677 a Session.
December 27, 2019
by Marshall AllenJudging by the marketing, it would seem that the teachers of New Jersey have collectively thrown out their…
NJ Spotlight: Sweeney Seeks Local Support for Public-Worker Benefit Reforms
November 21, 2019
Saying New Jersey has run “out of time” to address its major fiscal problems, Senate President Steve Sweeney urged local…
NJ.com: N.J.’s public worker pension system is the worst-funded in the nation. Again.
September 30, 2019
By Samantha Marcus | NJ Advance Media for NJ.comNew Jersey’s pension fund for government workers remains the most severely underfunded in the…
NJTV News: Unhappy with the state of Jersey’s roads? Then get a load of this
August 13, 2019
Asking New Jersey drivers what they think of the condition of the state’s roads is likely to produce a response…
ROI-NJ: Getting the most from N.J. infrastructure investments
August 8, 2019
By Regina M. Egea, Garden State InitiativeThere is broad agreement that infrastructure is the lifeblood of New Jersey’s economy. In…
NJ.com: There’s a cheaper way to fix roads in N.J. We’re just doing it wrong, study says.
August 8, 2019
Nothing in New Jersey is cheap, from the mortgage to taxes and many things in between.The price to build roads…
NJBiz.com: Garden State Initiative projects $2B savings in roads and bridges
August 8, 2019
Garden State Initiative released a report Wednesday identifying $2 billion in savings that can be reinvested for tangible improvements to New Jersey…
NJ.com: Why should N.J. taxpayers pay 50 percent more for public workers’ benefits, pensions?
August 5, 2019
By Regina EgeaWhile we’ve been hearing a lot about the U.S. debt ceiling lately, reporters and politicians know how difficult…
ROI-NJ: GSI analysis: Big gap in benefit cost in public, private sectors in N.J.
July 26, 2019
Garden State Initiative on Thursday analyzed the latest employee compensation data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and found major differences in…
APP.com: State benefits hurt middle class
April 8, 2019
The debate over what to do about the fiscal crisis with the public employee pension and health costs is front…
NJ Spotlight: Is NJ’s $1.2B School Transportation System Ripe for Savings?
February 21, 2019
SCHOOL DISTRICTS SPEND MORE EACH YEAR FERRYING PUPILS THAN ON SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS. A NEW REPORT SUGGESTS BIG…
NJ Spotlight: Sweeney Seizes the Mic, Holds His Own Town Halls, But Where’s Murphy?
February 19, 2019
Hitting the town-hall circuit to pitch the latest big policy initiative is a time-honored tradition in New Jersey, and in…
APP.com: NJ’s $117 billion spending problem, writ large: Bergmann
February 1, 2019
Opinion Editor Randy Bergmann of the Asbury Park Press (APP.com) writes on the Adding It All Up report issued by Garden State Initiative this…
GSI’s Egea: You don’t have to outrun the bear — just the other guy
January 2, 2019
The following opinion piece was published on ROI-NJ.com on January 2, 2019. For New Jersey’s economy to win compared with…
Press of Atlantic City: As Sweeney talks pension reform, rating-agency report confirms threat to state
December 7, 2018
New Jersey’s finances are a mess. Despite years of massive taxation, officials can barely pay the interest on its $48…
APP.com: Opinion: N.J. pensions: State must deal with budget’s third rail
December 5, 2018
In August, the Economic Policy Workgroup, established by state Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, with extensive participation from Republican and Democratic…
NJ Spotlight: S&P Notes Progress but Ranks NJ’s Among Worst Funded Pension Systems
November 1, 2018
New Jersey still has one of the nation’s worst-funded public-employee pension plans despite recent efforts to improve conditions using larger…
APP.com: Opinion: Without benefits reform, Murphy economic goals unachievable
October 19, 2018
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy recently revealed his economic development master plan with a 2025 horizon. He is focused on…
Press of Atlantic City: $496M Health Benefits Savings is Overdue Cut In NJ Wasteful Spending
October 5, 2018
Gov. Phil Murphy announced last month that his administration had reached a deal on government employee and retiree health benefits…
NorthJersey.com: Health Benefits Changes Welcome; More Needed
September 21, 2018
Progress is progress, but let’s not get too carried away by Gov. Phil Murphy’s plan announced this week to save…
Press of Atlantic City: Sweeney candid on pensions in push for true fiscal reform
September 10, 2018
State Senate President Steve Sweeney’s bipartisan task force has delivered an impressive list of recommendations on how to restore financial…
NorthJersey.com: Opinion: Continued Inaction on NJ’s pension crisis risks insolvency
July 27, 2018
The state pension crisis registers with most people as distant thunder at most. But just as a hurricane hundreds of miles…