Panel Will Exam a Key State Incentive

TRENTON, NJ-The state’s Business Employment Incentive Program, which rebates payroll taxes based on the number of jobs a company creates, has been credited with adding thousands of jobs in the Garden State. So when Gov. James McGreevey, in his budget message earlier this year, said there wasn’t enough money to make BEIP payouts this year and suggested that the BEIP itself might not survive, it sent shudders through the development community and drew applause from competing states.

The governor quickly backtracked, extending the BEIP payouts for an extra year to compensate for canceling this year’s payments. In the wake of the furor, a panel has been formed by the state to study BEIP and other state incentive programs and their relative effectiveness.

Co-chaired by William Watley, who heads the New Jersey Commerce & Economic Growth Commission, and attorney Ted Zangari of the Sill Cummis Law Firm of Newark, the New Jersey Business Incentives Study Commission is made up of top public and private sector leaders, including many of the state’s best-known real estate people. The commission, which has been divided into “critical examination” and “comparative analysis” working groups, is dotted with such names as Seena Stein of Newmark of NJ, Mitchell Hersh of Mack-Cali, Richard Johnson of Matrix, Harrison LeFrak of the Lefrak Organization, Gil Medina of Cushman & Wakefield and Robert Rudin of Insignia/ESG, to name a few.