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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has nominated Victoria Kuhn as the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) commissioner, making permanent a role she has held for months in an interim capacity.

A leading Republican wants lawmakers to act to curb the governor’s emergency powers.

Gov. Phil Murphy used his State of the State address to promise not to raise taxes and to create a “stronger New Jersey where we create opportunity and increase affordability,” but a leading business group says he must provide broad tax relief.

Gov. Phil Murphy has reinstated New Jersey’s public health emergency, saying an uptick in COVID cases made the action necessary.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has signed a measure to increase penalties for anyone who assaults a transit worker in the state.

The New Jersey Assembly Appropriations Committee advanced legislation that requires new hotel owners to continue to employ workers for at least 90 days without reducing their wages or benefits.

New Jersey Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, has tested positive for COVID-19, and is now self-quarantining.

(The Center Square) – New Jersey ranked at the bottom of the Tax Foundation’s 2022 State Business Tax Climate Index.

The Garden State ranked 48th for both corporate taxes and individual taxes. It also ranked 43rd for sales tax, 44th for property taxes and 32nd for unemployment insurance taxes.

New Jersey “is hampered by some of the highest property tax burdens in the country,” the Tax Foundation said in its analysis. It also “has the second highest-rate corporate and individual income taxes in the country and a particularly aggressive treatment of international income, levies an inheritance tax, and maintains some of the nation’s worst-structured individual income taxes.”

In the region, New York ranked No. 49, while Connecticut ranked No. 47, Pennsylvania ranked No. 29 and Delaware No. 16. Nationally, Wyoming topped the list, followed by South Dakota and Alaska.

“As we continue the conversation about the great need to make New Jersey more affordable, the annual Tax Foundation report shows just how much of an outlier we are in the nation when it comes to taxes,” Michele Siekerka, president and CEO of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) told The Center Square.

“Unfortunately, absent a real commitment to address our affordability challenges by our policymakers, New Jersey will continue to struggle to compete and will only maintain and enhance its reputation of not being business friendly,” Siekerka added.

(The Center Square) – New Jersey’s nonfarm wage and salary employment increased by 25,800 in November, marking the eleventh straight month of gains.

Additionally, the state’s unemployment rate for the month fell by 0.4 percentage points, from 7% to 6.6%, and the state revised its October job numbers upward by 29,800, citing “more complete reporting from employers.”

“So far this year the state’s job count has increased by almost 200,000,” Charles Steindel, New Jersey’s former chief economist, said in an analysis for the Garden State Initiative (GSI). “We are still about 170,000 jobs under the February 2020 peak, but with continued gains and the likelihood that the number has been understated, there now appears a reasonable chance a new peak could be reached next year.”

While all private sectors except construction saw job growth during the month, the state’s unemployment rate still exceeds the national average of 4.2%. Public sector employment also decreased.

“However, in contrast with the nation, where November saw a big drop in unemployment and a large increase in the labor force, New Jersey’s labor force was virtually unchanged,” Steindel said. “The longer-term stagnation in New Jersey’s workforce … remains baffling, even taking into account our sluggish population growth.”

The Garden State has recovered about 76% of the jobs, or 548,500 jobs, lost in March and April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development news release.

New Jersey’s Unemployment Rate