STATEMENT OF FORMER SENATOR RAYMOND LESNIAK ON EDA TASK FORCE

INVESTIGATION

Elizabeth, NJ – I have been following Governor Phil Murphy’s Task Force on the EDA tax incentives with great disappointment.  Rather than conducting a review of the tax incentives which I sponsored to retain and attract investment and jobs to overcome New Jersey’s position at the bottom of business friendly measurements, the Task Force has engaged in a campaign to malign and destroy the reputation of businesses and to settle political scores.

Its Chair, Ronald K. Chen, a professor and former Dean of the Rutgers University Law School in Newark, has determined the criteria to decide which businesses are deemed “entities of concern”, but will not share it with the public.  Not surprisingly,  the companies he is focused on are mostly located in Camden.  With advice and consent from a New York lawyer, who does not have a license to practice law in New Jersey, the Task Force has used this secret enemies list of “entities of concern” to wage a political carpet-bombing campaign against reputable businesses.

As a New Jersey lawyer and former legislator, I am particularly troubled by the public announcement of a “criminal referral” regarding its allegations of lobbying by a non-registered lawyer despite numerous similar involvement of lawyers in the legislative process and the exceptions to the lobbying registration requirements in the law. The political announcement of the “criminal referral” was irresponsible and unethical. Chairman Chen should and does know better.

I find no difference in the circumstances involved in the lobbying on behalf of the tax incentives on behalf of Camden, the poorest big city in the country, than the lobbying on behalf of Wall Street Giant Goldman Sachs by its Executive, now Governor Phil Murphy, who lobbied aggressively to get tax incentives for a project that, according to a 2014 New York Times article, was supposed to bring 6,000 jobs to Jersey City employees  but was never occupied as promised. Harvey Robins, mayoral aide to New York Mayor Edward I. Koch said in 2003: “Goldman squeezed Jersey for tax breaks and now they’re not missing a beat in looking for subsidies [in New York].”

As a Progressive Democrat, the author and sponsor of the first and every succeeding tax incentive legislation that passed in New Jersey by Democratic and Republican Legislatures and Governors, I reaffirm my support for the GROW NJ program that has had its intended effect on Camden – for the first time in fifty years, thirty plus companies have relocated to or expanded their operations in Camden.  The city is making tangible progress in attracting businesses, complementing efforts by residents and local leaders to increase graduation rates in the k-12 system to 70%, and reduce total crime by nearly 57% since 2012.

I urge Chairman Chen to stop the political posturing and focus on improving New Jersey’s needed tax incentives by supporting amendments (1) giving NJEDA authority to verify compliance information given to it from companies awarded tax incentives, (2) requiring NJEDA to report yearly to the Governor and Legislature stating its oversight of the tax incentives awarded, and (3) requiring NJEDA make a written determination of its evaluation that a business receiving a tax incentive would have located elsewhere, or left New Jersey but for the tax incentives, or in the case of Camden, was a material factor.