New Jersey’s gubernatorial candidates offered insights Monday into the changes they would enact to help spur real estate development and create a more welcoming environment for business in the Garden State, if elected.
U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, told an audience of commercial real estate executives that she would cut the red tape involved in the permitting process for projects and create more accountability in state government.
In turn, former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican candidate, called for lowering taxes on companies and bringing energy production back to New Jersey by encouraging solar energy, In fact, Ciattarelli said the Garden State should borrow a page out of the playbook of Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, who has already taken some of those steps.
Ciattarelli and Sherrill each addressed a gathering of the New Jersey chapter of the NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association on Monday at Middlesex College, a sold-out luncheon with roughly 185 attendees.
The two candidates are running to succeed Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who under the law can’t run for a third term. The gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia in November are under national scrutiny, viewed as offering a look into the strength of the Democratic and Republican parties in the voting booth.
Making the permitting process easier for real estate development and addressing rising energy prices, which affect businesses as well as residents, were a big part of both Sherrill’s and Ciattarelli’s remarks.
‘Fast-track’ team
After the two candidates spoke, CEO of NAIOP New Jersey Dan Kennedy told the event’s attendees he didn’t get the kind of details on Sherrill’s and Ciattarelli’s plans regarding real estate that he had expected.
“I wanted to hear a little bit more from Mikie about her positions on warehouses,” he said. “And I wanted to hear a little bit more [from Jack] ... on overdevelopment.”
During a question-and-answer period, Ciattarelli flat out said he was opposed to high-density housing being built “in communities where there is no mass transit, no infrastructure, no jobs.”
And Sherrill, a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot and once part of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey, said she would seek to claw back $5 billion in funding that President Donald Trump’s administration is cutting from the state.
In her travels across the state, Sherrill said, she has heard — from small to large companies alike — complaints about how difficult the permitting process is, dealing with bureaucratic red tape.
“We’re going to cut through that on Day 1,” she said. “To me, that means on Day 1 getting the right cabinet members in place to make sure that they share my vision of accountability, of transparency, of moving forward with this new climate.”
Sherrill proposed creating “a fast-track team so that if there is a burning problem that you’re dealing with, you have somebody to talk to who can help you.”
She also said her administration would create a dashboard so developers or other business owners could closely track the progress of their applications.
Ciattarelli’s solution, in part, would be to create a point person in state-permitting departments to “shepherd and navigate” an application so a business doesn’t have to work with three or four agencies simultaneously.
Both candidates talked about making New Jersey more appealing to business, with Ciattarelli looking to decrease the state’s business tax.
Pennsylvania model
“As Pennsylvania is lowering their business tax from 10 to 5%, New Jersey last year raised ours from 9 to 11.5%,” Ciattarelli said. “Do you or do you not want to compete on a regional basis? ... Over a six-year period, we’ll lower the business tax 100% a year to get down to 5%. That’s exactly the approach that Pennsylvania is taking.”
New Jersey is the only state in the nation that doesn’t have a Department of Commerce, according to Ciattarelli.
“What are we saying to the business community?” he asked. He would create one and partition it “along North, Central, South, and Jersey Shore” areas. “Each region has its own economy, its own challenges, its own attributes,” he said.
Energy prices have soared in New Jersey, a discussion point on Monday. Sherrill said she is committed to taking control of the state’s energy future, declaring a state of emergency and having utility companies come to the table to talk once she’s in office.
“It’s going to mean a massive expansion of energy in our state through solar, through battery storage, through nuclear, through natural gas modernization,” she said.
Ciattarelli, who is a Trump supporter, said he would create a Department of Energy to set policy in that sector. And he blamed New Jersey’s current administration with causing the state’s energy woes and looking to wind power as a solution.
New Jersey was once an electricity exporter, but now six electricity generation plants have shut down and there’s an unofficial moratorium on natural gas-fired electricity generation, according to Ciattarelli. And the state didn’t accelerate promoting putting solar panels on warehouse rooftops to generate power, he said.
Sherrill predicted that newly imposed Trump tariffs will have a negative impact on the state’s logistics industry and its warehouses, a sector where she said New Jersey has a lot of opportunity. She also said she supports the state having “a comprehensive land development plan so you have certainty and predictability.”