Missouri and Kansas entered into an agreement this week to stop offering incentives to businesses to relocate from their respective states and now some of New Jersey’s most influential lawmakers are talking about the possibility of crafting a similar incentives truce between the Garden State and neighboring Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware.

TRENTON — Two Midwestern states have added a new wrinkle to New Jersey’s ongoing debate over renewing and revamping the state’s expired tax incentives programs.

Missouri and Kansas entered into an agreement this week to stop offering incentives to businesses to relocate from their respective states and now some of New Jersey’s most influential lawmakers are talking about the possibility of crafting a similar incentives truce between the Garden State and neighboring Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware.

Among those who have endorsed the idea so far are Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-37 of Teaneck, and Sen. Troy Singleton, D-7 of Delran.

Singleton tweeted Thursday that the idea of a four-state pact between New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware was “worth exploring.” And Weinberg also tweeted that the concept “makes sense and is worthy of exploring” along with other joint initiatives or ventures.

“Small thing: we share TV market. We could do joint ads for things like public health,” Weinberg tweeted. “So many ideas should be reviewed.”

Both lawmakers are believed to carry considerable sway with their colleagues, particularly in their respective regions. Singleton has already floated some ideas on how the state’s incentive programs might be reformed.

The two Democrats whose opinions matter the most — Gov. Phil Murphy and Senate President Stephen Sweeney — also said they were open to the idea, through both also expressed some caveats or qualifiers.

The Kansas-Missouri agreement did not eliminate either state’s incentives for businesses altogether. But it did specify that they would no longer use them to poach businesses from each other.

Murphy, who formerly served as the U.S. ambassador to Germany, told reporters this week that the European Union requires its member countries not to use tax incentives against one another, and that he was “open-minded” about trying to craft something similar. But he also said he would want more states involved than just New Jersey and its neighbors.

“I think it would need to be more than the neighborhood. It would need to be a broader moratorium. But I’m open-minded,” the governor said during an unrelated event.

In a statement to press, Sweeney also suggested the idea has merit. However, the Gloucester County senator stressed that New Jersey would need to first renew its prior incentive programs.

“If we could get the governors of New York and Pennsylvania to agree to a tax credit ceasefire on ‘border wars,’ that would free up more tax incentive money for us to compete to bring new jobs into our region, particularly cities like Paterson and Trenton that need help the most,” Sweeney said. “But first we need a tax incentive program in place in New Jersey because we’re no longer in a border war. In fact, if the governor fails to sign our bill extending the tax incentive program, we’ve already unilaterally disarmed.”

The two programs, Grow New Jersey and the Economic Redevelopment and Growth incentives, were used to lure and retain businesses and reward development in desired locations. Both expired on July 1 after Murphy failed to take action on legislation sent to him by the lawmakers to temporarily renew them for seven months.

Murphy has promised to veto the legislation, but he faces a possible veto override once he does since the measure was overwhelmingly approved by lawmakers.

Sweeney said if Murphy changes his mind and signs the measure, lawmakers would be able to craft reforms to the two programs, including a possible “multi-state tax credit ceasefire.”

Without the incentives programs in place, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority cannot accept or approve new applications from businesses and developers, but billions in tax credits already approved are still expected to be paid out.

Murphy and progressive groups oppose extending the two programs, even for a short term, arguing they are too rich and overused and should be scrapped and replaced with new ones that are capped and targeted toward businesses in growing sectors and startups.

A special task force created by Murphy has also concluded that special interests had an oversized role in crafting the two programs in 2013, and that several companies linked to influential political power broker George Norcross III benefited from how they were designed.

But Sweeney and several other state lawmakers and business groups want to keep the existing incentives, saying they have helped bring or keep businesses in New Jersey, particularly the city of Camden and South Jersey counties like Burlington. They also argue a short-term extension would allow the EDA to continue accepting applications while reforms are negotiated and that Murphy would have the ability to veto any award he believes is not warranted.

Original Article