Drawing new industry to New Jersey has been a priority for the administration of Gov. Phil Murphy. Packaging the Garden State as a friendly place to do business is an ongoing effort by the state Economic Development Authority, which works to offer generous incentives — including tax breaks.
In recent years, New Jersey has offered these significant tax incentives:
$758 million for the film and television industry
$500 million for Artificial Intelligence development
$109 million for the financial technology firm Fiserv and nearly $10 million for Party City — both in New Jersey’s affluent suburbs
Murphy, members of the Legislature and leaders at the EDA believe these are investments that will help boost the state’s economy.
But do they help New Jersey or its residents? That’s less defined…
“The economy changes, plans change, and it’s hard to carry through on something like that,” said Will Irving, a professor at the New Jersey State Policy Lab at Rutgers University in New Brunswick…
Irving, the New Jersey State Policy Lab professor, noted that the state already has a number of large-scale incentive programs that a company specializing in AI could use.
NJ Emerge aims to keep businesses from leaving the state and also tries to attract new corporations to New Jersey, particularly to economically downtrodden areas.
“It’s simply because AI is such a hot topic right now, such a hot term, I’m not sure how this would necessarily differ from any of the targeted industries they already identify, which are mostly high-tech industries,” Irving said.