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Murphy has complained for months about the Economic Development Authority’s awarding of $11 billion in tax breaks throughout the state during the years of the Christie administration. The governor has contended the program has been ineffective in terms of actually producing new jobs.
Camden County Freeholder Director Lou Cappelli issued a statement along with Camden Mayor Frank Moran, City Council President Curtis Jenkins and state Senator Nilsa Cruz-Perez expressing displeasure with what they call “relentless, unfounded and disingenuous attacks on the businesses making generational investments” in cities like Camden.
“If there’s anything that’s been done incorrectly or wrong, that should be exposed. I agree 100 percent with the governor on that,” Cappelli told KYW Newsradio. “But to kind of cast a wet blanket on all the great stuff we’ve been doing down here is disappointing.”
What’s fueling this talk are reports published by New York public radio station WNYC along with the ProPubica Reporting Network that a good amount of the incentives in Camden are helping business and charitable interests of South Jersey Democratic party power broker George Norcross. His insurance brokerage is part of the program and is relocating from Marlton to Camden.
Norcross issued his own statement much of which is reflected in the county’s statement, noting a wide disparity between awards in Camden compared with cities to the north.
“Over the last two decades and until recently,” the Norcross statement read, “Camden and South Jersey have received just a small percentage of the state’s economic incentives while companies like Goldman Sachs, UPS, Siemens, Forbes, JP Morgan, Prudential, Panasonic and Verizon received eight and nine figure tax credits for locations in North Jersey."
There has been no response from Gov. Murphy’s office to KYW Newsradio's request for comment on the statement from Camden County officials.