Obamanomics, Christie-nomics, and Small Business are not a winning combination in New Jersey.
The state lost more than 9,500 of its roughly 180,000 Small Businesses from 2004 to 2014 as it struggled to recover from the downturn. Every county besides Ocean lost small businesses over the decade.
The economy has discouraged businesses owners across the state, said Deborah Smarth, chief operating officer of the NJ Small Business Development Centers.
"People have put off that decision because they don't want the risk," she said.
Meanwhile, New Jersey policies have discouraged growth, according to the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, which ranked the state 49th in the country for its small business climate, mainly due to taxes.
Working in a high cost state, many business owners have put financing and taxes at the top of their list of concerns, Smarth said.
"In recoveries, small businesses are the ones that have been job savors and creators," Smarth said. "Yet the New Jersey government has not been friendly to small businesses."
The Democrats in our state legislature have a "solution," of course. Raise taxes. They're trying to hike the gas tax by 23 cents a gallon, and there's the perennial Millionaire's Tax they trot out whenever one of their pet projects looks like it's running out of money. Property taxes are among the highest in the nation, the sales tax bites everybody every day, and New Jersey even charges an Exit Tax when you wise up and leave our progressive utopia.
Add in the burden of skyrocketing Obamacare premiums, onerous and duplicative environmental regulations, surcharges for "affordable housing," a $15 per hour minimum wage, mandatory paid sick time, and a toll booth on every street corner, and well, it's no wonder people aren't flocking here to hang out their shingle.
"New Jersey government has not been friendly to small businesses" has
gotta be the Understatement Of The Year. But wait, whichever of the dueling
Steves (Sweeney or Fulop) becomes our next governor, you can be certain of
one thing — small businesses in New Jersey will look back on this past
decade as The Good Old Days as he turns the citizenry into an ATM for the
gold-plated public employee pension and benefits fund.
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