Numerous Bills Looking To Jumpstart Economy Clear Senate
TRENTON – Committed to getting the state’s economy moving again, the Senate today voted out several pieces of legislation that will spur job creation and help small businesses grow in New Jersey.
“What happened in the Senate today is a great example to Washington of what can be done when both sides come together for the greater good,” said Sweeney. “Today, Democrats and Republicans joined together to pass over a dozen bills that will help create jobs and spur economic growth. It is just unfortunate that the governor is half way across the country raising funds for his political party instead of being here working with us on these measures.”
The following bills, largely with bipartisan support and few objections, cleared the Senate:
S-1015 (Oroho/Bucco/Beach), which would permit businesses that hire National Guard or reservists mobilized to active duty service to receive either corporation business tax or gross income tax credits;
S-1648 (Ruiz/Whelan), which would authorize county colleges and county vocational school districts to establish green job certification programs;
S-1885 (Kean, S), which would allow corporation business tax and gross income tax deductions for the amount of net interest received on loans to certain qualified UEZ businesses;
S-1949 (Sweeney/Kean, T), which would exempt business facilities that employ at least 50 people, at least 50 percent of whom are directly employed in a manufacturing process, from one-half of the tax imposed under the Sales and Use Tax Act on the retail sale of energy and utility services that are consumed exclusively at that facility;
S-1988 (Sarlo/Kyrillos), which would phase out the cosmetic medical procedure gross receipts tax over a three-year period;
S-2456 (Scutari/Cardinale), which would create the “New Jersey Trade Secrets Act”;
S-2728 (Norcross/Whelan/Ruiz), which would authorize the Department of Agriculture to implement mobile fresh produce markets for residents of urban “food desert” communities;
S-2771 (Norcross/Kean, Sean), which would require the Department of Community Affairs to create a maintenance code and to oversee a new inspection process for the exterior of certain residential and commercial buildings;
S-3033 (Lesniak/Kyrillos), which would establish the “Grow New Jersey Assistance Program” (Grow NJ), a tax credit incentive program designed to grow New Jersey-based companies through subsidies for both retained and new jobs;
S-3052 (Whelan/Sarlo), which would establish a Small Business Loan Program in EDA allowing certain small businesses to be eligible for low interest rate loans of up to $250,000 to expand their businesses;
S-3054 (Sweeney), which would expand certain corporation business tax credit programs to the gross income tax, providing gross income taxpayers with the same incentives available to corporation business taxpayers for investment and hiring, particularly sole proprietors, partnerships, and limited liability companies;
S-3055 (Madden), known as the “New Jersey Angel Investor Tax Credit Act”, which would create specific gross income and corporate business tax credits for start-up investments of up to $500,000 made in New Jersey-based high-tech and biotechnology companies;
S-3056 (Sarlo), which would expand the existing tax credits for film and digital media production expenses, increasing the annual program cap for the film production tax credit from $10 million to $50 million and for the digital media production tax credit from $5 million to $10 million.
In the coming weeks, the Senate will also be examining further measures that can help get New Jersey’s economy moving again.