I spent the afternoon on Tuesday visiting with a great New Jersey family at the Jersey Shore. Captain Bob and his outstanding crew and family, including Bill, Suzie, Tara, and Captain Paul joined me on the charter boat, "The Gambler" in Point Pleasant.
We spent time chatting about the situation in New Jersey regarding the regulation and taxation that works against small companies like theirs.
Whether it's the over-regulation on customers and boats or the high taxes, including the Corporate Business Tax, that is among the highest burdens in the nation.
One of the leading Democratic candidates for governor in 2025 wants to keep it that way in another blow to a struggling industry.
The challenge for the industry which has been declining since 2015 in the Garden State is that the lockdowns made things nearly unrecoverable for so many. When the government got a billion-dollar windfall from the feds, Murphy only doled out a paltry amount leaving most small charters in the same precarious position.
The question is what do we need to do from a state perspective?
First, we need to create exemptions from state taxation for small businesses with only a handful of employees including charter fishing boats.
Second, relief money that is being spent on illegals and lavish furnishing for the governor and his inner circle needs to be rolled back and redistributed to struggling family businesses.
Third, we need to create tax incentives to establish a legitimate and aggressive "sea to table" industry by ensuring that taxpayer-subsidized food purchasing, governments, schools, shelters, and prisons, only come from locally grown, harvested, and caught food sources.
New Jersey government needs to refocus on the mission of supporting local businesses, families, and communities. The days of using the government to line the pockets of the insider elites must come to an end.