Senator Booker and Governor Murphy on Opportunity Zones

In Opportunity Zones: Urban Redevelopment, Steve Adubato moderates the “Investor Symposium on Federal Economic Opportunity Zone Program,” hosted by Choose New Jersey, featuring conversations with U.S. Senator Cory Booker and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, about the importance of opportunity zones and their potential impact on urban development and revitalization in New Jersey and across the country.

8/25/18 #221

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Hi, I'm Steve Adubato. Recently I moderated a forum hosted by Choose New Jersey with United States Senator Cory Booker and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy about the challenges and potential impact of the new federal Opportunity Zone Program in New Jersey and the nation. Here now is that conversation. To Jose and the team at Choose New Jersey, I cannot thank you enough, not just for having the senator and the governor here, but frankly, in a very short period of time, getting the folks who matter deeply, and care deeply. Senator, let me ask you, when you were on with us on public television, you talked about these Opportunity Zone initiatives. The idea came from where? And in fact you worked with a Republican from? South Carolina. To make this happen. What does a Republican from South Carolina care about the cities of New Jersey? Well first of all, Tim Scott is an extraordinary rising star in the United States Senate on the Republican side. I did my first legislation with him, which was for apprenticeship programs, and even that legislation I learned from being Mayor of the City of Newark. And we called our... all of our factories together, and we asked them, "What was your biggest pain point?" I thought they were gonna complain to me about taxes, but I started hearing them saying, "I can't find machinists, I can't find this, I can't find that employee." So that was my first piece of legislation, but something I found out during the height of the recession, we had to figure out a way to attract businesses to the City of Newark, and it was the Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit really... The Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit? ...Tax Credit. It just rolls right off the tongue. Go ahead. [laughter] But really designed by my then Head of Economic Development, who some... a lot of people here know the inside story of that, helped to get that written. If you create a good tax environment, you can get investment back into communities - communities like Newark - that have a great competitive advantage anyway. And so Tim and I were working with an extraordinary organization you're going to hear from, EIG, that were able to put together something that we knew could get a lot of the parked capital investment... sidelined capital, back... invested into areas that are the best emerging markets on the planet Earth, which are here... right here in the United States of America. And Governor, in New Jersey, how many Opportunity Zone Projects look..."