NJBIA President Provides Insight In Hopes of Improving Economic Growth
NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka testified on Monday that New Jersey needs to make immediate and strategic moves to send a positive business message amid large job losses and large employers moving or growing elsewhere in 2026.
Speaking before the Assembly Commerce & Economic Growth Committee, Siekerka said despite possessing extraordinary economic assets — including a highly educated workforce, strategic geographic location, world-class research institutions, leading pharmaceutical and logistics sectors, and proximity to major global markets — New Jersey still continues to lag in employment and business climate.
Siekerka focused on manufacturing and workforce development.
While offering data showing New Jersey’s strengths in manufacturing, she said those manufacturers are often at a competitive disadvantage due to regulatory burdens, regulatory costs, lower capital costs, energy costs and taxes.
She offered the following recommendations to help New Jersey’s manufacturing sector:
- Create a permanent regulatory review commission per the recommendation from the Legislature’s Manufacturing Caucus to help avoid overburdensome compliance issues for small and mid-size manufacturers.
- Provide a permanent state budget line item or another permanent funding stream for the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program (NJMEP).
- Restore the wildly popular and oversubscribed Manufacturing Voucher Program (MVP) program which provides tens of millions of dollars to incentivize manufacturers’ investment in capital equipment.
- Get more NJEDA support for Strategic Innovation Centers, the Innovation Evergreen Fund and the Commission on Science, Innovation & Technology (CSIT).
READ THE FULL ARTICLE FROM THE NJBIA.