Bills Aimed at Growing Jobs, Helping Homeowners, Protecting Middle-Class New Jerseyans Approved in Unique Committee Sessions Aimed at Financial Meltdown. 19 Bills Advance.
(Trenton) – Assembly panels meeting today in unprecedented committee sessions approved a wide-ranging bill package to help hard-working New Jerseyans and the small businesses that employ them emerge strong from the national economic crisis.
The 19 bills advanced today would:
· Promote new jobs and retain existing ones by revamping small business taxes and enhancing grants and incentives for small businesses.
· Prevent home foreclosures and protect homeowners from unscrupulous lenders.
· Help pay winter fuel bills.
· Bring new consumer protections against securities fraud.
· Bring savings and new jobs through alternative energy.
“The extraordinary economic circumstances facing the nation require extraordinary actions by lawmakers here in New Jersey,” said Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. (D-Camden), who directed committees to focus solely on the financial meltdown and what can be done to help New Jersey workers and businesses.
The sweeping package was approved amid rare joint committee hearings and specially focused meetings of the Assembly Budget Committee and the Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee.
Legislation (A-3124) Assemblyman Louis Greenwald (D-Camden) and John McKeon (D-Essex) are sponsoring to enable businesses to write-down net operating losses for up to 20 tax years, as opposed to the currently allowed seven years, was released by the Assembly Budget Committee.
The bill would put New Jersey in line with neighboring states and help businesses recoup losses. The sponsors say the reform is especially needed by small businesses that might not otherwise be able to weather the current economic storm.
The budget panel also advanced legislation (A-2517) Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson-Coleman is sponsoring to create a fund to provide foreclosure prevention counseling and make loans and grants available to nonprofits who help homeowners. It also requires creditors seeking to foreclose on a subprime loan to offer a six-month hold to let borrowers negotiate refinancing.
Another bill (A-688) advanced by the Budget Committee would provide an annual cost-of-living increase in a program that helps low-income seniors and disabled persons pay gas and utility bills. The increase – proposed by Assembly members L. Grace Spencer (D-Essex), Anthony Chiappone (D-Hudson), and Elease Evans (D-Passaic) – would be proportional to the increase in the Social Security benefit for the year or 5 percent, whichever is less. The current assistance is only $225.
Measures to promote job creation through alternative energy initiatives advanced after a joint meeting of the Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities and Environment and Solid Waste committees.
One bill (A-843) would provide equal opportunity for businesses to receive energy-related incentives and funding and another (A-2550) would permit wind and solar facilities within industrial zones.
The first measure is being sponsored by Assembly members Upendra Chivukula (D-Somerset) and Marcia Karrow (R-Hunterdon/Warren); the second by Assemblywoman Pam Lampitt (D-Camden), Chivukula, and Assemblywoman Connie Wagner (D-Bergen).
A joint meeting of the Assembly’s Financial Institutions and Insurance and Housing and Local Government committees advanced a bill (A-281) Assemblymen Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) and John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester) are sponsoring to impose tough new requirements on foreclosure consultants and others who contract with homeowners facing foreclosures.
The banking and housing panels also released legislation (A-2496) sponsored by Assemblyman James Holzapfel (D-Ocean) that would require debtors to receive two weeks notice prior to a sheriff’s sale of foreclosed property. The bill also would require a sheriff’s office to give a debtor notice when there has been a surplus in the sale of foreclosed property.
Assemblywoman Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D-Camden) is sponsoring a bill (A-2272) that would include securities under the Consumer Fraud Act to protect consumers from deceptive sales and advertising in the marketing of securities. That measure advanced amid a joint meeting of the Assembly Law and Public Safety and Regulated Professions committees.
The Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee advanced several bills, including:
· A measure (A-2626) Assemblyman Joseph Vas (D-Middlesex) is sponsoring to modify how a manufacturer’s worldwide income is subjected to New Jersey taxes, which would benefit corporations that have a higher percentage of property and payroll in the state.
· A measure (A-2722) Vas, Greenwald, and Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Essex) is sponsoring to reshape how certain corporate sales made in other states are taxed, and eliminate a provision that increases a corporation’s entire net income that is taxable by New Jersey, creating a more accurate tax payment to the state.
· A bill (A-2997) Vas and Coutinho are sponsoring to modify the Business Employment Incentive Program to allow co-ops to participate, give high-performing urban businesses better incentives and allow grant extensions.
· Legislation (A3294) Vas, Greenwald, and Assemblyman Nelson Albano and Matthew Milam (both D-Cape May/Cumberland/Atlantic) are sponsoring to modify the Business Retention and Relocation Assistance Grant program to make it easier for small and mid-size businesses to take advantage of program benefits.
The commerce committee also advanced legislation to provide a corporation business tax and gross income tax credit to employers who allow their employees to telecommute. The bill is sponsored by Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris).
The Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee and Assembly Human Services Committee convened a joint hearing on the impact of the crisis on health care and social services such as food stamps, Medicaid, and NJ FamilyCare.
“The Assembly is looking at this crisis from every angle,” Roberts said. “We have to be both pro-business and pro-consumer as we look to boost every segment of New Jersey’s economy.”
The hearings come after the Assembly Labor Committee on September 22nd took testimony on the economy and the Assembly on September 25th approved several corporate reform bills to make New Jersey more competitive with other states.
The hearings also come after the Assembly backed cutting business taxes by $275 million last fiscal year, avoided a $350 million business tax increase this year by strengthening the unemployment trust fund and helped businesses by extending building permit approvals through July 1, 2010.
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