Budget hearings began with the first hearing of the Assembly Budget Committee while deliberations on the Affordable Housing, Transportation Trust Fund and Open Public Records Act (OPRA) bills were underway in Trenton.
The March 11 meeting was the first opportunity for a variety of constituents, advocacy groups and stakeholders to weigh in on the $55.9 billion 2025 budget proposed by Gov. Phil Murphy last month. Business groups in particular were keen to publicly testify to their disdain for the proposed Corporate Transport Fee (CTF).
“Today is the beginning of our due diligence as a budget committee,” said Assembly Budget Chairwoman Eliana Pintor Marin, D-29th District. “This is the first of two public hearing sessions where we will hear the concerns of the public. As you know if you have been here before, it is possible that organizations It could be someone from a lobbying group, or it could be the public or voters that we all represent.”
bad for business
Tom Bracken, president and CEO of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, was the first to testify. He stressed that this budget is bad for the business community.

“I'll say again what I said two weeks ago: This is a nightmare scenario for business,” Bracken warned. “Our largest employer and our largest nonprofit philanthropist are suffering from completely unwarranted tax increases. That amount of money has recently expired for those affected. It is more punitive than a CBT surcharge; it is simply a more egregious and expensive extension of a surcharge.”
Mr. Bracken has since committed to inconvenience fees to the logistics industry and funding to government agencies such as the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), the New Jersey Business Action Center (NJBAC), and the New Jersey Business Action Center (NJBAC). He addressed a number of criticisms of the proposed budget, including cuts to the budget. Jersey Small Business Development Center (NJSBDC). It also noted that there are no new or renewal allocations for businesses in the budget.
“The biggest threat to our country right now is our economic future,” Bracken said. “Currently, income is on the decline, but expenses are on the rise.”
He said that to maintain economic prosperity, the nation needs to grow and create regular, reliable, organic and growth-oriented sources of income through a vibrant and attractive business economy. said.
The biggest threat to our country right now is our economic future.
– Tom Bracken new jersey chamber of commerce
“This budget is [in] I'm against all of that. Our economic momentum is starting to reverse,” Bracken said. “It also hurts our state’s reputation as a business-friendly state.”
He added: “This also creates a lack of confidence for our business leaders that the state will not deliver on the promises they have made. This will further increase prices and reduce competitiveness.”
Bracken made four recommendations
- Provide more funding to the aforementioned agencies (NJEDA, NJBAC, NJSBDC).
- Invest $6 billion of state surplus.
- We will surgically examine the remaining budget plans to find the $1 billion needed for transportation funding.
- The “trackback tax” will be abolished. Bracken explained that the additional $10 million is a rounding error in the nearly $56 billion budget.
“This is an opportunity we cannot afford to waste,” Bracken continued. “We'll probably never have an opportunity like this again. This business community has been asking for these things for years, and we need to start looking at how to fund them. must pivot to create a stronger economy. Nothing can grow if you don't feed it.”
“We're not just not feeding the business community, we're starving it,” Bracken concluded his testimony.
A rose by another name
Another business leader critical of the budget, Michele Siekerka, president and CEO of the New Jersey Business Association (NJBIA), also testified. He explained that the CTF is the gate through which the business community must pass when considering this budget.
Siekelka emphasized that increasing taxes on the biggest and most innovative job creators will make the budget uncompetitive, affordable, and sustainable, just like in New Jersey.

“The business transit fee is just another face of the CBT surcharge that just went into sunset just 10 weeks ago. “It's based on a promise that is a recognition to address the fact that there is 'business to be done,'” Ziekerka said. “Governor. Mr. Murphy specifically said we need to be calm about our economic development strategy when it comes to eliminating the CBT levy.
“And he said that just two weeks before presenting the budget. What on earth has changed?”
“Competitiveness is important”
Siekerka said the promises and words of policymakers are important because companies make long-term investments and decisions based on the predictability and reliability of the environment in which they operate.
“Nobody makes a big investment based on uncertain and uncertain changes,” Ziekerka explained. “This policy shift is an undetermined change that will have a significant impact on businesses’ decision-making ability in the short and long term.”
Mr. Siekelka said such a policy shift would be a major deterrent for people looking to grow, invest and move to New Jersey.
“Simply put, promises matter to companies in making decisions, and so do your words,” she emphasized. “This new tax will further erode our competitiveness, and we can't think of it in isolation. And competitiveness is important.”
A remarkable day in the state capital prepares for a successful budget season.