In the year and a half since Gov. Phil Murphy created a task force to investigate New Jersey's tax incentives, the team of lawyers said it has saved the state $11 million.
It's also billed nearly as much, too.
The task force was still working through the COVID-19 pandemic and through April — the peak in hospitalizations and deaths — and had billed the state nearly $10.6 million, according to invoices obtained through the Open Public Records Act.
But the panel expects to save the state multitudes more money over time and expects to issue a third and final report on its findings on the incentives administered through the Economic Development Authority, spokesman Darryl Isherwood said.
"The potential aggregate savings from projects that the Task Force has referred so far exceeds $550 million," Isherwood said.
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Known formally as the Task Force on EDA’s Tax Incentives, the legal team was named by Murphy in January 2019 after a state comptroller found flaws in the main incentive programs passed by his Republican predecessor Chris Christie and Democrats in the Legislature. The task force started billing in March 2019, the same time it began hearings.
The investigation quickly became viewed as an attack on state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and his longtime friend and benefactor, South Jersey power broker George E. Norcross, whose associated companies were rewarded more than $1 billion in tax breaks, according to an analysis by WNYC and ProPublica.
In the first year of its work, the task force uncovered inconsistencies that raised questions about some of the companies connected to Norcross, as well as others that received tax breaks, but no illegal intent.
It also found that the development authority had problems of its own and, it said, "a culture of getting to yes" that raised "questions concerning the extent to which the state body carried out its role as a steward of public funds."
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The task force had signaled earlier in the year when it issued its second report that it may have been its last. But the pandemic changed the circumstances.
“Although the Task Force does anticipate wrapping up its investigation in the near future, we elected to afford companies extensions on various deadlines in light of the pandemic," said Jim Walden, one of the task force attorneys and whose New York-based firm, Walden Macht and Haran, has been paid the most by the state. "Thus, finishing the final report and recommendations will accordingly take a bit longer than we initially hoped.”
The virus affected Walden, too. He contracted the disease in March and started working from his weekend cabin in Connecticut, according to an interview with Law 360. He told the news outlet that the virus had slowed his firm's litigation practice, and his attorneys had work outside of litigation keeping them busy.
That work apparently included New Jersey at a time when the Murphy administration was heavily focused on dealing with COVID-19.
Since March, when the virus first hit New Jersey, Walden's firm billed the state $1.95 million, according to the invoices. Another firm, of task force assistant Pablo Quiñones, billed $208,000 in that same period.
A separate inquiry into tax breaks by a legislative committee issued a report with recommendations for future tax incentives, but lawmakers and Murphy have been unable to agree on how to lure and keep businesses in the state. The main programs expired last summer and there has been no sign of progress on reviving or starting new programs amid the pandemic.
Dustin Racioppi is a reporter in the New Jersey Statehouse. For unlimited access to his work covering New Jersey’s governor and political power structure, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: racioppi@northjersey.com Twitter: @dracioppi
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Your tax dollars at work: State spent nearly $11M to 'save' $11M. Are more savings coming? - NorthJersey.com
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