Christie Veto Ends UEZ 1/2 Tax Zones

Excerpts
Economically-challenged Bridgeton will have one less economic helper next year.

That’s when the city’s Urban Enterprise Zone designation expires, an action aided by Gov. Chris Christie’s conditional veto Wednesday of legislation to extend the life of each of the state’s 32 UEZs by 10 years.

 That program, as created, allowed the UEZs to charge half the state sales tax and use that money for economic development projects.

Christie’s action also left the bill’s primary sponsor, Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Hunterdon, Mercer, angry.

“It’s clear that (Christie) doesn’t care about New Jersey, her people, or her problems,” Gusciora said. “This move is actively detrimental to thousands of businesses across the state. Ending the UEZ program is going to force hundreds of establishments to close or move, and will cost thousands their jobs and livelihood.”

The UEZ program was first authorized in 1983 as a 20-year program. The Legislature in 2001 authorized a 16-year-extension to the program.

In his veto message Wednesday, Christie noted the legislation to extend the life of the UEZ’s by 10 years would result in $2.3 billion in lost revenue over a decade.

He also noted an Economic Development Authority report that contends the UEZ program is “bureaucratically cumbersome and costly to operate, and has yielded inconsistent and uncertain quantifiable results in terms of business expansion and job creation in the state’s urban areas.”

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