Rooney warned that raising business taxes will slow wage growth

TRENTON, N.J. – Assemblyman Kevin J. Rooney said raising taxes on businesses to fund an unaffordable budget will hurt low- and middle-income families by slowing job growth, wage growth and deterring people from opening a business in the state.

“New Jersey is unaffordable for people and businesses and the budget Democrats passed today doesn’t address that,” said Rooney (R-Bergen). “The fewer jobs, slower wage growth and higher prices residents will have to pay because of these tax hikes will only make living here more difficult.

“We heard calls from Democrat leadership on cutting spending and tax increases as a last resort, but they still passed a budget that will increase taxes by $1.2 billion – mostly on businesses that will have to pay the highest taxes in the nation.

There isn’t a clearer example of the folly of raising taxes to support spending than the corporate business tax,” concluded Rooney. “Seven of the last 10 years CBT revenue has gone done, and state spending increased. We can’t control our revenue, but we can control spending. Hiking business taxes to the highest rate in the nation only follows that misguided philosophy. To make the state more affordable the budget needs to become more affordable.”