ROBERTS UNVEILS BROAD ECONOMIC AGENDA FOR UNPRECEDENTED ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE SESSIONS

ROBERTS UNVEILS BROAD ECONOMIC AGENDA
FOR UNPRECEDENTED ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE SESSIONS
Bills to Boost Business, Grow Jobs, Protect Homeowners Slated for Monday Action

(TRENTON) - Preventing foreclosures, assisting struggling homeowners, helping people pay heating bills, promoting job creation through alternative energy and boosting small businesses are among measures to be considered Monday by Assembly committees that will mull how New Jersey can emerge strong from the national economic crisis.

The unprecedented committee meetings will include four joint hearings by Assembly panels and hearings by the Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee and Assembly Budget Committee. Assembly Speaker Roberts directed the committees to focus solely on the financial meltdown and what can be done to help New Jersey workers and businesses.

"The extraordinary economic circumstances facing the nation require extraordinary actions by lawmakers here in New Jersey," said Roberts (D-Camden). "The Assembly will look at this current crisis from every angle. No longer can we think it impossible to be both pro-business and pro-consumer. We need to seek ways to boost every segment of New Jersey's economy."

The swift economic response was announced Tuesday by Roberts and Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer).

Legislation (A-3124) Assemblymen Louis Greenwald (D-Camden) and John McKeon (D-Essex) are sponsoring to enable businesses to write-down net operating losses for up to 20 tax years is scheduled to be heard by the Assembly Budget Committee. The bill would put New Jersey in line with neighboring states that allow businesses such a time frame to recoup losses. The sponsors say the reform is especially needed by small businesses that might not otherwise be able to weather the current economic storm.

The budget panel also will consider legislation (A-2517) Watson Coleman  is sponsoring to create a fund to provide foreclosure prevention counseling and make loans and grants available to nonprofits who help homeowners as well as require creditors seeking to foreclose on a subprime loan to offer a six-month hold to let borrowers negotiate refinancing.

Another bill (A-688) scheduled for Budget Committee consideration would provide an annual cost-of-living increase in a program that helps low-income seniors and disabled persons pay gas and utility bills. The increase - proposed by Assembly members Grace Spencer (D-Essex), Anthony Chiappone (D-Hudson), and Elease Evans (D-Passaic) - would be proportional to the increase in the Social Security benefit for the year; the current level of assistance is only $225.

A joint meeting of the Assembly's  Financial Institutions and Insurance and Housing and Local Government committees will review a bill (A-281) Assemblymen Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) and John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester) are sponsoring to impose tough new requirements on foreclosure consultants and others who contract with homeowners facing foreclosures.

The banking and housing panels also will take up legislation (A-2496) sponsored by Assemblyman James Holzapfel (R-Ocean) that would require debtors to receive two weeks notice prior to a sheriff's sale of foreclosed property.  The bill also would require a sheriff's office to give a debtor notice when there has been a surplus in the sale of foreclosed property.

Measures to promote job creation through alternative energy initiatives will go before a joint meeting of the Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities and Environment and Solid Waste committees. One bill (A-843) would provide equal opportunity for businesses to receive energy-related incentives and funding and another (A-2550) would permit wind and solar facilities within industrial zones. The first measure is being sponsored by Assembly members Upendra Chivukula (D-Somerset) and Marcia Karrow (R-Hunterdon/Warren); the second by Assemblywoman Pam Lampitt (D-Camden), Chivukula, and Assemblywoman Connie Wagner (D-Bergen).

Assemblywoman Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D-Camden) is sponsoring a bill (A-2272) that would include the sale of securities under the Consumer Fraud Act to protect consumers from deceptive sales and advertising in the marketing of securities. That measure will be heard in a joint meeting of the Assembly Law and Public Safety and Regulated Professions committees.

The Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee will hear a bill (A-2722) -sponsored by Joseph Vas (D-Middlesex),Greenwald and Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Essex) - to reshape how certain corporate sales made in other states are taxed, and eliminate a provision that increases the amount of a corporation's entire net income that is taxable by New Jersey.

Another Vas measure (A-2997) would remove limitations and extend grants under the Business Employment Incentive (BEIP) program while a bill (A-3294) sponsored by Assemblyman Matt Milam (D-Cumberland/Atlantic/Cape May) would make it easier for small and mid-size businesses to take advantage of the Business Retention and Relocation Assistance Grant Program (BRRAG) program.

The commerce committee also will consider legislation to provides a corporation business tax and gross income tax credit to employers who allow their employees to telecommute. The bill is sponsored by Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris).

The Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee and Assembly Human Services Committee will hold a joint hearing on the impact of the crisis on health care and social services such as food stamps, Medicaid and NJ FamilyCare.

The hearings come after the Assembly Labor Committee on Sept. 22 took testimony on the economy and the Assembly on Sept. 25 approved several corporate reform bills to make New Jersey more competitive with other states.

The hearings also come after the Assembly backed cutting business taxes by $275 million last fiscal year, avoided a $350 million business tax increase this year by strengthening the unemployment trust fund and helped businesses by extending building permit approvals through July 1, 2010.

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