Proposes creation of Commerce Department, withdrawal from emissions cooperative
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP — “Part of my reorganization of state government will include the re-establishment of a Department of Commerce to advocate for the business community,” Jack Ciattarelli said Oct. 7. “That Department of Commerce will work in partnership with chambers such as yours.”
The Republican gubernatorial candidate was addressing the Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce at Seaview Golf Club as part of its Public Policy Impact Series, which featured Democratic candidate U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill on Aug. 27.
‘I will be the most pro-business governor this state
–Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli
has ever had — my administration will be
pro-business and our policies will be pro-business.’
Ciattarelli is a lifelong New Jersey resident and businessman who represented the 16th Legislative District in the Assembly from 2011-18. The accountant is also founder of a medical publishing company.
According to a biography provided by the chamber, Ciattarelli built his career on promoting fiscal responsibility, supporting small businesses and strengthening the state’s economic competitiveness. He was the Republican nominee for governor in 2021, losing to Gov. Phil Murphy.
Ciattarelli introduced himself as a third-generation business owner.
“My primary motivation in running, my primary objective in serving, is to make New Jersey a better place to do business,” he said.
Ciattarelli said the current administration is trying to “tax its way out of fiscal calamity,” while he is proposing to “responsibly reduce the size and cost” of state government.
He said, however, that those reductions alone would not put New Jersey back where it belongs as a top state for business.
“You can’t cut your way out either. The only way out is to grow our economy, and the only way to grow the economy is by being a more pro-business state,” Ciattarelli said, noting New Jersey has ranked in the basement year over year for its friendliness.
“I will be the most pro-business governor this state has ever had — my administration will be pro-business and our policies will be pro-business,” he said.
Ciattarelli said the Garden State was once home to more Fortune 500 companies than any other state, but now big businesses avoid New Jersey because of overregulation, high taxes, a lack of qualified labor and high energy costs.
“We are the only state government in the country right now of the 50 states, the only one that does not have a Department of Commerce,” he said, outlining a plan to divide the state into four zones — north, central, south and shore.
“Each region has a different economy. Each region has different attributes, but each region has different challenges. We’re not going to achieve our full potential as the state economy unless all four regions do extremely well,” he said.
Ciattarelli said the Department of Commerce would be “partitioned not only along geographical lines, but also in terms of large, medium and small-sized businesses. Each sector needs its advocate in state government.”
Corporate taxes
Ciattarelli said the state must follow Pennsylvania’s lead in lowering corporate taxes to attract economic growth.
He said the Keystone State is lowering taxes for big business from 10 percent to 5 percent over five years to compete with Ohio, where there is no business tax.
“When they were lowering their business tax to 5 (percent), the opposition party here in New Jersey was raising ours from 9 to 11.5 (percent), the highest in the nation,” Ciattarelli said.
He proposed lowering the state’s business tax to 5 percent.
“We can do that by reducing the size and the cost of our state government in a very responsible and surgical way,” he said.
Not only big businesses would benefit. Ciattarelli also proposed tax breaks for small business, such as making the first $100,000 of payroll exempt from taxes “and let’s not ever tax the gain on the sale of a family business.”
Ciattarelli said overregulation is harming the business climate.
“There are a whole lot of unnecessary regulations that tie down business in this state,” he said. “I do believe we can lessen the regulatory load without doing irreversible harm to the environment or screwing the consumer or the resident, but we have to make New Jersey a less regulatory intensive state.”
He also suggested tax cuts to help maintain a dwindling labor pool, saying New Jersey leads the nation in the fewest returning college graduates.
“The next generation is seeing greener pastures elsewhere. What does that say for our labor pool? What does it say for the future?,” he said.
Ciattarelli proposed making the first two years out of high school and the first two years out of college income tax-free and to refund the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition for those who come to New Jersey for school and stay. He also suggested expanding vocational training starting in high school.
“We’ve got the highest property taxes in the nation. We can lessen that with a more equitable distribution of state aid and new school funding formula,” he said.
Energy production
Ciattarelli said the state needs to return to the days when it exported energy rather than importing it.
“Eight years ago, we produced more than we needed, and we exported. Today, we’re having to import electricity through these changes, competing with other states and paying through the nose. That’s why your monthly electric bill is going through the roof,” he said.
He said the Murphy administration shut down six electricity-generating plans, put a moratorium on natural gas-powered plants and failed to expand nuclear and solar capabilities.
Ciattarelli said a quick solution is to withdraw from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is a carbon tax policy that has failed New Jersey.
“We’ll pull out of RGGI day one, and so doing, save rate payers, homeowners, tenants and businesses $300 (million) to $500 million a year on day one, Ciattarelli said. “We’ll reopen and repurpose the plants that were shut down, we’ll lift the moratorium on natural gas-fired electricity generation plants, we’ll put the shoveling ground in South Jersey for a fourth nuclear reactor and we will accelerate solar on the rooftops of all this.”
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Cape May Star and Wave
