Category: Statement

State-Based Exchange Will Ensure Health Care is Affordable

Posted on by Raymond Castro
Governor Murphy unveiling a package of bills to create and fund a State-Based Exchange at a roundtable event in Paterson on May 31, 2019. Photo by Edwin Torres / Office of the Governor.

Earlier today Governor Phil Murphy and lawmakers announced a package of bills to establish a fund a State-Based Exchange for health insurance. The proposals would uphold protections of the Affordable Care Act and give the state more flexibility in determining what plans are offered and how the enrollment process works. In response to today’s announcement, NJPP releases the following statement.

NEW JERSEY POLICY PERSPECTIVE HEALTH POLICY DIRECTOR RAY CASTRO 

“The creation of a State-Based Exchange is welcome news to hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans whose health care has been threatened by the Trump administration and his enablers his Congress. While the federal government seeks to eliminate essential health benefits and critical protections for patients with preexisting conditions, New Jersey is responding in big ways to ensure health care remains comprehensive and affordable.

“With a state run marketplace, New Jersey can go beyond the minimum requirements in the Affordable Care Act to create a better experience for over 600,000 health care consumers. States that have their own marketplace have been more effective in making plans more affordable, promoting more transparency and accountability, enrolling more consumers, and offering more choices. Since 2016, health care enrollment dropped by 3.7 percent in states that use the federal marketplace while state marketplaces experienced an increase in enrollment of 0.9 percent.

“Positive benefits from a state marketplace should be noticeable to consumers in the first year of implementation as the open enrollment period will double from six weeks to twelve weeks. The state marketplace will also provide more robust outreach to ensure residents are aware of their coverage options. However, to achieve the full promise of a state marketplace, the state should establish the more ambitious goal of further reducing the number of uninsured New Jerseyans, which stands at the unacceptable level of 700,000. New Jersey should follow best practices adopted by other states and supplement federal premium subsidies with state subsidies, provide health coverage through buy-in programs for those not eligible for subsidies, and make creative and efficient use of existing federal funding. While the challenges are many, the opportunity is almost limitless.”

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Paid Family Leave Bill Passes Through The Legislature

Posted on by NJPP Staff

Today, New Jersey passed legislation to make sweeping improvements to the state’s Paid Family Leave Insurance Program and the Temporary Disability Program. These changes will go a long way toward making the programs more accessible to working families, especially those struggling to balance work and family care-giving.

SHEILA REYNERTSON, SENIOR POLICY ANALYST, NJPP:
“New Jersey Policy Perspective has long supported critical improvements in the state’s Family Leave Insurance Program. As part of Time to Care Coalition, NJPP called for reforms in our 2017 report highlighting the design flaws that have undermined the intention and impact of the program. Far too many workers were not taking leave, even though they pay into the program, because they either didn’t know about it or couldn’t afford to use it. We applaud the legislature for quickly recognizing the need to make paid time off more accessible to working families, ensuring that New Jersey’s family leave program remains strong and competitive with other states.

“Improving New Jersey’s paid Family Leave Insurance program is a common-sense policy that ensures workers don’t have to make impossible choices between economic security and important family obligations. By improving wage replacement rates, more low-income workers can afford to take leave when they need it. And by expanding the length of leave from 6 weeks to 12 weeks, more new parents can take the necessary time to recover from birth and bond with a new child. This bill also crucially extends the benefit—and the economic security that comes along with it—to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

“Disappointingly, the bill lacks important job protections, failing to protect 800,000 employees from losing their jobs if they choose to take leave because they work for a New Jersey business with fewer than 30 employees. The Time to Care Coalition will continue to advocate for universal job protection, because the size of a company should not determine whether a worker deserves economic security while grappling with difficult health and life altering events outside the workplace.”

$15 Minimum Wage Bill Through The Legislature

Posted on by NJPP Staff

Today, legislation to increase New Jersey’s minimum wage to $15 by 2024 passed through the legislature and now awaits Governor Murphy’s signature. This is one of the most significant pieces of legislation in the state’s history and will benefit nearly one million workers and their families, strengthening our economy and benefiting businesses all across the Garden State.

BRANDON MCKOY, DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, NJPP:
“Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour will improve the lives of millions of people across New Jersey as low-paid workers and their families will be able to more easily afford their basic day-to-day needs. The positive impact of this change will reverberate throughout the economy as workers will immediately have more purchasing power, spending their increased earnings in their local communities and benefiting businesses on Main Street.

“After several proposals that excluded teen workers from the full wage increase, we are very happy to see that they have not been marginalized in this bill—work is work and should be valued regardless of who does it or how old they are. While this legislation will have a tremendous and positive effect on the state, more work must be done to ensure that New Jersey’s agricultural and tipped workers are not left behind. Employees in these sectors face unique challenges that are left unaddressed by this legislation, and we will continue to fight for policies that fully recognize the dignity of their labor.

“We applaud the legislature for recognizing that millions of New Jerseyans suffer from poverty wages and making it a priority to urgently pass this bill onto the governor’s desk. This will be one of the most consequential and beneficial pieces of legislation in the state’s history, helping to reduce poverty, mitigate income inequality, and strengthen our economy.”

Deal Reached on $15 Minimum Wage

Posted on by NJPP Staff

Earlier today Governor Murphy and legislative leaders reached a deal on legislation to raise New Jersey’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024. The proposal includes a parity provision for seasonal and small business employees (who will not reach $15 an hour until 2026), ensuring all workers make the same wage by 2028.

BRANDON McKOY, DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, NJPP: 

“Raising New Jersey’s minimum wage to $15 an hour is one of the most consequential, pro-worker policies enacted in the state’s history. Phasing in to $15 over five years will boost the take home pay of almost one million New Jerseyans from all corners of the state. The positive impact of this increase will reverberate throughout the economy as workers will immediately have more disposable income to spend in their local communities. This will also benefit New Jersey’s vibrant business community, especially those on Main Street, by growing their customer base and helping more residents afford their goods and services.

“NJPP has long-advocated for a $15 minimum wage for all, as New Jersey’s high cost of living does not discriminate based on age or sector. The parity provision in this proposal is critical to ensuring seasonal and small business employees will not be left behind, even if their phase-in schedule is a few years longer. We applaud the inclusion of teen workers, who were at risk of being carved out of this legislation, as their work is just as valuable to the economy and their families as anyone else’s.

“For the state’s agricultural and tipped workers, there remains more work to be done. Employees in these sectors face unique challenges that this legislation leaves unaddressed. The dignity of all workers must be recognized and we will continue to report on and fight for policies that meet the needs of all New Jerseyans, including our tipped and farm workers.”

Audit of EDA Should Make Taxpayers Furious

Posted on by NJPP Staff

This morning the New Jersey Comptroller released its long-awaited audit of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA), an important step toward reining in some of the excesses of the state’s corporate tax subsidy programs. On the heels of the report, Governor Murphy released his proposed reforms to the programs. For the last two decades, NJPP has reported on and advocated for reforming the state’s corporate subsidy programs.

SHEILA REYNERTSON, SENIOR POLICY ANALYST, NJPP:

“Today’s audit of the EDA is the latest in a long line of findings, both by state government and independent organizations like NJPP and McKinsey, that New Jersey’s lavish corporate subsidy programs operate with little oversight and no evidence of spurring economic growth. Every New Jersey taxpayer should be furious knowing that the state has handed out billions of dollars in corporate tax breaks — with no real strings attached — while simultaneously cutting funds for public schools, NJ Transit, and state colleges and universities.

“The state’s failure to produce annual reporting, as required by law, is an insult to taxpayers who expect state dollars to be sufficiently monitored. The lack of oversight and monitoring undermines the integrity of a tax subsidy program, and more importantly, trust in state government. By their very design, the state’s incentive programs favor corporate interests over the well-being of the state’s economy and its working families.

“The need for robust reform of corporate subsidy programs has never been clearer, and the proposals outlined today by the Governor are a critical first step in the right direction. Specifically, the state should place strict annual caps on the state’s largest subsidy programs as a mechanism to improve accountability and oversight.”

Reforms Proposed by NJPP

Other reforms NJPP would like to see the legislature adopt include:

  • Implementing more robust reporting requirements on incentive outcomes

  • Developing more stringent standards for subsidies given to corporations for shifting jobs within the state

  • Restricting corporations’ ability to redeem more in tax credits than they owe in taxes

Read more here: NJPP: It’s Time to Rebalance the Economic-Development Scales

Leaders Must Address Policy Violence Against People of Color & Poor Communities

Posted on by NJPP Staff

America’s strength – and New Jersey’s strength in particular – is inextricably linked to its diversity. New Jersey’s leaders must clearly and unequivocally reject hatred like the neo-Nazism and white supremacy that was so vividly on display this weekend in Charlottesville – and we applaud those on both sides of the political aisle who have done so.

While condemning this physical violence is a must, so is confronting – and working to end – a deeper violence: the policy violence and structural racism that is waged against New Jerseyans of color and poor communities across the state. Public policies have helped to create and sustain many of the deep problems and economic injustices that our society faces today. And public policies can help to solve these problems.

Lawmakers and political leaders must build on our state and nation’s greatest strength – our diversity – to actively make change, foster equal opportunity and build a more just state. They can start by advancing policies to reform a tax code that disproportionately helps wealthy, whiter New Jerseyans; improve the economic security of low-income families (of which so many are people of color); and prudently invest in policies and programs that boost the short- and long-term economic prospects of families trying to climb the broken ladder into the middle class.

Statements that condemn the hatred of white supremacy are important, but words without action can’t fix the public policies and laws that harm the poor and communities of color, and perpetuate inequity and injustice.

Passing the 2018 Budget Must Come First

Posted on by Jon Whiten

This is Trenton horse trading and gimmicky budgeting at its worst, because the budget itself doesn’t have anything to do with the Horizon bill when it comes to policy – it’s only being attached because of political wheeling and dealing.

The state budget is about far more than numbers, and it is certainly about much more than political gamesmanship – it is about meeting the needs of all of New Jersey’s residents. The focus today needs to be on passing the 2018 budget – not about trying to put together another Frankendeal just to fulfill the governor’s crusade against Horizon.

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