Category: Video

NJPP’s Brandon McKoy Discusses Legalized Marijuana’s Revenue Potential

Posted on by NJPP Staff

When New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform and New Jersey Policy Perspective partnered earlier this week to release a new report on the positive revenue implications of legalizing marijuana in New Jersey, NJTV News was there.

As NJTV notes, the co-authored report estimates slightly more than $300 million a year in revenue from a fully phased-in legal and regulated market. The trick is undercutting the illegal market by keeping tax rates low to start.

“You will get people comfortable in participating in the legal market and they will come to be familiar with and appreciate the benefits of it being a safe place, ensuring the health and the safety of the product,” said NJPP Policy Analyst Brandon McKoy.

NJPP’s Brandon McKoy Discusses the Need to Boost the EITC

Posted on by NJPP Staff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Hc_bPeZQk

Screen-Shot-2016-03-21-at-1.17.19-PMIncreasing New Jersey’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) could boost the incomes of nearly 600,000 working families in the state who aren’t paid enough to get by, New Jersey Policy Perspective policy analyst Brandon McKoy told WMBC-TV in a segment that aired this weekend.

Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto has spearheaded efforts to increase the EITC to 40 percent of the federal credit, which would boost the annual take-home pay for the state’s lowest earners by as much as $600, enough to cover most of one month’s rent for some families. The average New Jersey recipient of this credit would get about $225 more each year.

“These are families that are working, but not being paid enough for the work they’re doing,” McKoy said. “They’re struggling [with] getting by day to day. It’s the mom who is trying to figure out, ‘How am I going to pay for the weekly groceries?’”

Major Concerns Remain About Casino Expansion Push

Posted on by NJPP Staff

A key Assembly committee held a public hearing yesterday on the proposal to expand casino gambling in New Jersey, and as NJTV News reports, critics like NJPP president Gordon MacInnes were on hand to raise concerns about the plan – including the potential damage two new casinos could inflict on South Jersey’s economy.

“If … you don’t have the tax rate in mind, there’s no way to estimate, therefore, how this bill will benefit Atlantic City, and Atlantic County and South Jersey,” he said. “So why rush? You have 150 days at least before the constitutional requirement says you have to vote on this.”

NJPP’s Gordon MacInnes Provides Live Reaction to Governor’s Budget Address

Posted on by NJPP Staff

NJPP president Gordon MacInnes was one of two guests invited to provide commentary on NJTV News following Gov. Christie’s budget address on Tuesday. Among other things, he pointed out that the budget address lacked a fix for New Jersey’s most pressing problem – the pending insolvency of the Transportation Trust Fund.

“He did not address the question that is central to New Jersey’s future: What are we going to do about transportation?”

NJPP’s Gordon MacInnes Joins Legislative Leaders & Advocates Calling on New Jersey to Raise the Minimum Wage

Posted on by NJPP Staff

https://vimeo.com/154246665

Yesterday in Trenton, New Jersey Policy Perspective president Gordon MacInnes joined Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, Assembly Transportation and Independent Authorities Committee Chairman John Wisniewski, Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Gary Schaer and Senate Economic Growth Committee Chairman Raymond Lesniak and dozens of advocates at a press conference convened by New Jersey Working Families on the need to increase New Jersey’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.

“Our middle class is shrinking, the working class is squeezed tight and the poor are destitute,” MacInnes said. “We’ve got a minimum wage, at $8.38 an hour, that doesn’t come close to allowing a full-time worker to have a chance in New Jersey.”

He added that New Jersey taxpayers foot the bill for low-wage employers in a major way.

“Taxpayers step in to subsidize employers who are perfectly happy to provide low wages,” he said. “In this year’s budget, we’re going to put forward – though it will be hidden – almost $1 billion in public subsidies to low-wage employers. … It’s time to put an end to that.”

The full video is embedded below, thanks to the Assembly Democratic office. MacInnes’ comments begin around the 28 minute mark, but the full video is worth watching.

https://vimeo.com/154246665

Closing Corporate Tax Loophole Would Make New Jersey a Fairer Place to Do Business

Posted on by NJPP Staff

Last week, Senators Lesniak, Sarlo and Greenstein and Assemblyman Holley joined New Jersey Policy Perspective, the New Jersey Main Street Alliance, New Jersey Working Families and New Jersey Citizen Action to kick off a renewed push to close corporate loopholes in the state by enacting what’s known as “combined reporting” – and NJTV was there to cover it.

Making this common-sense change would level the playing field for New Jersey’s small, locally owned businesses while providing additional resources needed to grow a strong state economy. And, as our senior policy analyst Sheila Reynertson notes, it would hardly be noticeable for most large multistate employers in New Jersey.

“Our research clearly shows that most of New Jersey’s largest employers already operate in combined-reporting states and in some cases, have been doing so for decades,” she says.

NJPP’s Gordon MacInnes Debates Corporate Tax Subsidies with NJBIA’s President

Posted on by Jon Whiten

New Jersey has approved $6.7 billion in tax breaks for corporations since January 2010, including $3.7 billion in just 2014 and 2015 alone, in a failed attempt to help the economy recover from the depths of the Great Recession.

At NJ Spotlight‘s inaugural “NJ Spotlight On Cities” conference in October, New Jersey Policy Perspective president Gordon MacInnes debated the merits of this largesse with New Jersey Business and Industry Association president Michele Siekerka in a conversation moderated by Spotlight reporter John Reitmeyer.

The news outlet recently made the audio available; it’s embedded below.

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