Officials hail New Jersey's Economic Opportunity Act

Government officials hailed the New Jersey Economic Opportunity Act of 2013 as "a game-changer" at a regional economic summit Friday.

"This is the most influential piece of legislation ever to impact South Jersey," Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. told about 300 business leaders, bankers, academics, entrepreneurs, and others at the Westin Hotel & Conference Center in Mount Laurel. "You should all get to know it."

Cappelli spoke at the eighth annual Tri-County Economic Development Summit, which gives an update on the region's economic health.

Gov. Christie signed the measure, which many say will help level the economic playing field between the southern and northern parts of the state, into law Sept. 18. It provides, among other things, $175 million for economic development projects in Camden and $600 million for qualified residential projects statewide, and allows companies to pursue tax credits to create jobs.

"This bill finally puts Southern New Jersey on more equal footing with the rest of the state and Philadelphia," State Sen. Donald Norcross (D., Camden) said at Friday's event, sponsored jointly by Burlington, Camden and Gloucester Counties. "Our economic incentive packages were designed for the state as a whole, but the northern end with New York is a very different climate than the southern end with Philadelphia."

He said Philadelphia, by offering a 10-year real estate tax abatement to developers and homeowners, gave itself an advantage over South Jersey in spurring housing development and rehabilitation, while Keystone Opportunity Zones - commercial or industrial areas with greatly reduced or eliminated tax burdens for property owners, residents, and businesses throughout Pennsylvania - gave that state a tool to attract larger-scale developments.

"We have projects on a smaller scale here," Norcross said. "It was clear that incentives in New Jersey had not been working for the southern half."

Norcross said the new formula created a tiered system based on regional population and business growth potential to generate more balanced development across the state.

The new law, he said, involved more than a year of discussions with South Jersey stakeholders. The act streamlined the state's economic development incentive programs into two categories: GrowNJ, which will be the state's main job-creation incentive program, and the Economic Redevelopment and Growth Program (ERG), now its sole incentive program for developers.

Both programs have been extended until July 1, 2019. Supporters say the reorganization makes it easier for small and medium-size businesses to take advantage of them.

A key component of the act is that it gives struggling urban areas a boost. It encourages development and private sector job growth in "Garden State Growth Zones," identified as the state's four cities with the lowest median family income: Camden, Trenton, Passaic, and Paterson.

"I predict we will look back 10 or 15 years from now and say this [Economic Opportunity Act] was the game-changer that created economic growth in South Jersey," Cappelli said. "The tax credits available for developers who invest and create jobs will allow those developers to build at a very low net cost. It allows tenants to lease at a very low number, so this will have a significant impact."