Board/Partners Login:
Our Accomplishments over the Past 12 Months . . .


Economic Development: Make New Jersey a Pro Investment State.
  • Several parts of the Corporate Business Tax Reform Package pushed by the Platform Coalition have been signed into law, including the extension of the Net Operating Loss carryover period and the repeal of the “throwout” and “regular place of business” provisions.

  • Governor Corzine established a grant program in the NJ Economic Development Authority to provide businesses with grants of up to 7 percent of their capital investment costs and $3,000 for each new job created and retained for one year.

  • Governor Corzine signed a law which expands the number of businesses that qualify for a sales tax exemption at the point of sale on purchases within an Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ). This change allows businesses with annual gross receipts of less than $10 million to obtain a sales tax exemption at the time of purchase.

  • Our advocacy efforts, along with other groups, were instrumental in encouraging the Administration to reduce state spending for the first time in over 10 years - and to enact an executive order that ensures state budget spending will not be allowed to exceed current revenues.
Environment: Create guiding principles of environmental policy that must transcend administrations, hold the DEP accountable and help strike a balance between protecting the environment and building a strong economy.
  • Legislation has been introduced that promotes “green jobs” and incentives for the business community. These include: S-1932 and A-2507 (grants for energy programs and projects); S-1299 and A-2550 (Zoning change for Wind and Solar Energy); S-1066 (Low Interest Loans for Green Buildings); A-843 (Energy Incentives For Business Funded by Societal Benefits Charge); A-2859 (Energy Generation on Farms); and A-3616 (NJ-Based Solar and Wind Energy businesses promotion).

  • Legislation that utilizes the recommendations from the State Chamber’s 2007 Site Remediation Benchmarking study has been passed out of committee. This establishes a Licensed Site Professional (LSP) program for site remediation within the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). This legislation proposes to borrow aspects of a Massachusetts program to allow certified professionals to proceed through the investigation and remediation of selected sites with a minimum of DEP oversight.
Government Reform: Establish reforms at all levels of New Jersey Government that will serve to improve service delivery and increase the public perception of government.
  • Legislation was passed that prohibits legislators elected after February 2008 from simultaneously holding more than one elected office.

  • Grant money was placed in the fiscal 2009 State of New Jersey budget to examine ways to tie the distribution of municipal aid to the level of shared services, regionalization, and consolidation activities taking place in that community.

  • The Local Unit Alignment Reorganization and Consolidation (LUARC) Commission will deliver a report to the Governor and legislature in March 2009 to recommend ways to eliminate duplication of services within various branches and layers of government.

  • Over 15 pieces of legislation have been introduced that would serve to reform public employee benefits.
Healthcare: Improve state's health care system to ensure that it is accessible, accountable and affordable.
  • Governor Corzine signed legislation to ensure that more residents in the state have access to affordable health care coverage by expanding the NJ FamilyCare Program to more low income parents, mandating that all children in the state have health care coverage either through public programs or private coverage, and adopting various reform measures to the individual and small employer insurance markets to increase the affordability of health benefits plans for individuals and small businesses. 

  • After partnering with the New Jersey Lawsuit Reform Alliance, the New Jersey Hospital Association, the New Jersey Medical Society and other Platform members, a tort reform agenda has been drafted and is in the process of being approved.

  • The Platform has partnered with the State Chamber, the Healthcare Institute of New Jersey and others to create the New Jersey Chapter of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease. The PFCD believes that rising rates of chronic health problems pose a significant and unsustainable burden on the U.S. health care system, and that the viability and strength of the system presently and in the future relies on a willingness to enact policies that help Americans better prevent and manage chronic illnesses.
Transportation: Increase vitally needed infrastructure investment by creating public support through awareness and education.
  • Thanks to our collaborative advocacy efforts, the widening of the Garden State Parkway between Exits 63 to 80 is scheduled to start in the Summer of 2009. Safety improvements will also begin in 2011 to add shoulder space between Toms River and Wall Township from Exits 80 to 100. Also, the widening of the New Jersey Turnpike from Exits 6 to 9 will take place.

  • The environmental review process has been completed for the $8.6 billion mass transit commuter rail tunnel project into Manhattan. This allows New Jersey to seek and receive the federal funds needed so New Jersey Transit can award contracts.
Workforce: Build a highly qualified workforce through innovative collaborations with K-12 education and the workforce training and preparation system.
  • After a three-year policy effort by the Chamber's Business Coalition for Educational Excellence, the State Board of Education has moved to dramatically increase the requirements for obtaining a high school diploma with proposed code that would mandate rigorous courses, such as Algebra I, Geometry and Biology, and reinforcing subject matter through standardized state tests.

  • LearnDoEarn, a powerful suite of web-based programs encouraging middle and high school students to make the best possible academic, behavioral, and career decisions, is being disseminated in over 150 schools throughout New Jersey and other states thanks to corporate sponsorship.

  • Established the New Jersey Business Alliance for Nursing, which is designed to transform nursing education in New Jersey and ensure that New Jersey has a well prepared and diverse nurse faculty and the nursing workforce necessary to meet the demands for health care in the 21st century.

  • The New Jersey Business Leadership Network (NJBLN) hosted a conference at which service providers heard from employers and learned how the level of skills for all jobs is increasing.