TRENTON, N.J. — Amazon HQ2 will apparently involve a HQ3 too, Save Jerseyans.
Neither site will be in New Jersey.
According to published reports Tuesday, Amazon is planning to split HQ2 between two separate locations hundreds of miles apart: Queens (NYC) and Arlington, Virginia.
New Jersey’s top Republican in the state senate says Phil Murphy deserves the blame for the state’s failed bid to bring the mega-corporation to Newark along with $5 billion in investment and 50,000 jobs.
“New Jersey was well on the path to creating the stable, predictable tax environment that employers like Amazon require until Governor Murphy’s budget reversed nearly a decade of fiscal discipline,” said Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Union). “The massive multi-billion dollar business tax increase signed by Governor Murphy in July was the nail in the coffin for Newark’s proposal to host HQ2.”
Murphy’s first budget included $1.5 billion in tax increases — among those hikes was a multi-year surcharge on businesses and — which Kean, a potential Murphy opponent in 2021, says undoubtedly played a role in Amazon’s decision-making process notwithstanding a bipartisan tax “break” package widely decried as corporate welfare.
“New Jersey has many positives to offer, including a highly-educated and talented workforce, a history of innovation, and an amazing location,” added Kean. “It’s sad to see Governor Murphy’s steamroll all of that with a misguided notion of tax fairness that is demonstrably making New Jersey weaker and less competitive.”
According to the Tax Foundation, New Jersey’s business tax climate is the nation’s worst.
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