Activists call for Economic Development Authority board to resign over NJ tax breaks

Dozens of activists on Tuesday called for the board of the Economic Development Authority to resign over what they view as corrupt mismanagement of state tax incentives over the past decade. 

Thirty-five of those activists staged a protest outside the authority's office in Trenton ahead of the board's meeting demanding accountability, according to an organizer. At the meeting, seven people representing a broad coalition of interests read letters to the eight-member board urging each of them to step down to begin to rebuild trust with taxpayers.

They also delivered a letter signed by 56 organizations to the board seeking the resignation of its members. 

"You all, the board, are asleep at the switch or active participants in this corruption. Either is unacceptable and it's time for you to resign today," said David Pringle, a political consultant and longtime environmental advocate. 

No one on the board took the suggestion, but the confrontation between activists and the board members represents the tension in the state capitol over tax breaks and how they should be used in the future.

Two of the most controversial programs largely used by Republican former Gov. Chris Christie expire at the end of June and his successor, Democrat Phil Murphy, wants to replace them with incentives that would be capped and targeted toward start-up businesses, historic areas and low-income communities. 

Murphy has used a comptroller's audit he ordered as evidence that the tax incentive programs, which were passed by Democrats in the Legislature, rewarded large corporations and lacked needed oversight to the detriment of the state. That audit found that the authority awarded $11 billion in tax breaks, mostly under Christie, without the assurances that jobs were retained or created. 

A fraction of the $11 billion has been paid out, but the Murphy administration may be in a position to try clawing money back if a group of investigators assembled by Murphy finds instances where companies did not meet the requirements of the tax credit programs. The panel of lawyers is holding hearings on the incentives and already has reached an agreement with one company to pay the state back for not being in compliance with the incentive agreement. 

One former executive testified to the panel last month that her company lied to receive tax breaks. And the authority's former director of incentives, John J. Rosenfeld, said in a whistleblower lawsuit that the Christie administration pressured him to overlook rules and regulations to approve billions of dollars in tax breaks. 

"It is clear that the companies have been playing New Jersey taxpayers for fools: lying about their plans to leave the state in order to extort untold amounts of corporate subsidies from the EDA," said Susan Altman, spokeswoman for South Jersey Women for Progressive Change. 

Laurence Downes, the board chairman, thanked the speakers for coming to the meeting but did not respond to them. The board went through the rest of its meeting agenda and cleared the room to go into executive session. Representatives for the authority had no immediate comment. 

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