Late on Wednesday, it was announced that Governor Murphy, Senate President Sweeney, and Assembly Speaker Coughlin reached an agreement on reforms to the tax incentive programs.
According to the announcement the agreement “includes annual caps, strong compliance standards, groundbreaking tools to support the innovation economy, and robust labor protections.”
A-4/S-3295 was considered and approved by both the Assembly Appropriations Committee and Senate Budget Committee today. Both bills are scheduled for a full vote of the Senate and Assembly on Monday.
The legislation includes the following:
- “Historic Property Reinvestment Act” providing tax credits for part of the cost of rehabilitating historic properties in this State.
- “Brownfields Redevelopment Incentive Program Act" providing tax credits to compensate developers of redevelopment projects located on brownfield sites for remediation costs.
- "New Jersey Innovation Evergreen Act" auctioning tax credits for cash, which will be used to invest in innovation as a catalyst for economic growth and to advance the competitiveness of the State’s businesses in the global economy.
- “Food Desert Relief Act” providing tax credits in order to incentivize businesses to establish and retain new supermarkets and grocery stores in food desert communities.
- "New Jersey Community-Anchored Development Act" providing tax credits to anchor institutions to incentivize the expansion of targeted industries in the State and the continued development of certain areas of the State.
- "New Jersey Aspire Program Act" providing tax credits to encourage redevelopment projects by covering certain project financing gap costs.
- “Emerge Program Act” providing tax credits to encourage economic development, job creation, and the retention of significant numbers of jobs in imminent danger of leaving the State.
- "Main Street Recovery Finance Program Act" providing grants, loans, and loan guarantees to small businesses.
- "New Jersey Ignite Act" a public-private partnership providing start-up rent grants to collaborative workspaces to support the early months of an early stage innovation economy business’s rent at the collaborative workspace.
- “Economic Development Authority Integrity and Protection Act" to create an Office of the Economic Development Inspector General, which will operate independent of the oversight or management of the EDA, and to require employment of Chief Compliance Officer to manage the Division of Portfolio Management and Compliance in the EDA.
We will be providing you with a more detailed analysis of the legislation.
Contact: Lori Buckelew, Assistant Executive Director, lbuckelew@njlm.org, 609-695-3481 x112.