LEGISLATIVE FISCAL ESTIMATE
[Second Reprint]
SENATE, No. 2307
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
218th LEGISLATURE
DATED: JUNE 26, 2018
SUMMARY
|
Synopsis: |
Creates Garden State Growth Zone at Atlantic City International Airport and surrounding area. |
|
Type of Impact: |
Indeterminate fiscal net impact on State General Fund and Property Tax Relief Fund; potential revenue increase to affected local governments. |
|
Agencies Affected: |
Department of the Treasury; New Jersey Economic Development Authority; and Certain local governments. |
|
Office of Legislative Services Estimate |
||
|
Fiscal Impact |
Multi-Year Lifespan of Incentive Awards |
|
|
Direct State Revenue Loss |
Indeterminate |
|
|
Indirect State Revenue Gain |
Indeterminate |
|
|
State Opportunity Cost |
Indeterminate |
|
|
Indirect Local Revenue Gain |
Indeterminate |
|
|
|
|
|
· The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) cannot determine whether the bill will have a positive or negative net fiscal impact on the State. The inability to determine the direction and magnitude of the fiscal impact is rooted in imperfect information on the number and attributes of projects that, under the bill, might qualify for Grow New Jersey Assistance Program (Grow NJ) tax credits and Economic Redevelopment and Growth Program (ERG) grants and tax credits.
· The State fiscal impact is calculated by adding the indeterminate direct revenue loss from awarding additional incentive amounts and their opportunity costs (the fiscal benefits the State forgoes as spending is redirected from one economic activity to another) and subtracting from that sum the indirect revenue gain that will accrue from additional economic activity that the additional incentive amounts will catalyze.
· The direct revenue loss to the State from additional Grow NJ tax credits and ERG grants and tax credits awarded as a result of the bill cannot be quantified. Any revenue loss related to the additional incentive amounts, however, will be limited by several factors, such as geographical restrictions, application deadlines, and eligibility requirements. Any additional incentive award, however, will add to the total amount of incentive awards that the New Jersey Economic Development Authority has already approved: $4.738 billion in Grow NJ tax credit awards, as of April 10, 2018 and $989.3 million in ERG grant and tax credit awards, also as of April 10, 2018, both since the enactment of “The New Jersey Economic Opportunity Act of 2013, P.L.2013, c.161.
· The bill might accrue an indeterminate revenue gain to affected local governments if the bill results in the EDA extending financial assistance to business projects that would not be undertaken absent the assistance and if the business projects involve value-increasing improvements to real estate.
BILL DESCRIPTION
The bill creates a new Garden State Growth Zone (GSGZ) within an “aviation district,” which is defined to include all areas within the boundaries of the Atlantic City International Airport and the Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Technical Center, and the area within a one-mile radius of the outermost boundary of that airport and technical center. Under current law, Atlantic City, Camden, Passaic, Paterson, and Trenton qualify as GSGZs
Under Grow NJ and ERG, qualified businesses located in a GSGZ are eligible for enhanced incentives offered only to businesses located in GSGZs. The bill extends the deadline for businesses in an aviation district to apply for the enhanced incentives by three years, from July 1, 2019 to July 1, 2022.
The bill extends these enhanced incentives to qualified businesses undertaking projects in an aviation district that are approved after the effective date of the bill. The bill also exempts developers of non-residential projects from purchasing pinelands development credits under the “Pinelands Protection Act,” the pinelands comprehensive management plan, or any other rule or regulation adopted pursuant to that law in connection with any approval or relief obtained related to those projects.
The bill also provides that, in the case of a project located in an aviation district, persons working as independent contractors who meet certain requirements are deemed full-time employees for certain purposes. A business with at least 15 persons working as independent contractors that meet these requirements may claim each of those persons as eight-tenths of a full-time employee for the purposes of meeting the minimum Statewide workforce total required under the Grow New Jersey Assistance Program.
FISCAL ANALYSIS
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
None received.
OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE SERVICES
The OLS concludes that the bill may produce an indeterminate revenue gain to the municipalities which Atlantic City International Airport (Egg Harbor Township) and the William J. Hughes Technical Center (Galloway Township) are located, and any municipalities within a one-mile radius of those facilities, if the legislation results in the EDA extending financial assistance to business projects that would not be undertaken absent the assistance and if the business projects involve value-increasing improvements to taxable real estate.
On the other hand, it is unclear whether the bill will have a positive or negative fiscal net impact on the State. The inability to determine the direction and the magnitude of the fiscal net impact is rooted in imperfect information on the number and attributes of projects that might qualify for or receive enhanced Grow NJ tax credits and ERG grants and tax credits. Conceptually, the State fiscal net impact is calculated by adding the direct revenue loss from awarding additional incentive amounts and their opportunity costs (the fiscal benefits the State forgoes as spending is redirected from one economic activity to another) and subtracting from that sum the indirect revenue gain that will accrue from additional economic activity that the additional incentive amounts will catalyze.
Direct State Revenue Loss: The OLS cannot quantify that direct revenue loss the bill will impose on the State because of imperfect information on the number and attributes of projects that, under the bill, might either newly qualify for or receive enhanced Grow NJ tax credits and ERG grants and tax credits. Any additional incentive award, however, will add to the total amount of incentive awards that the EDA has already approved: $4.74 billion in Grow NJ tax credit awards, as of April 10, 2018, and $989.3 million in ERG grant and tax credit awards, also as of April 10, 2018, both since the enactment of “The New Jersey Economic Opportunity Act of 2013,” P.L.2013, c.161.
Any revenue loss will be: a) temporally limited, since the EDA will only consider applications received prior to July 1, 2022 and the bill applies only to new Grow NJ and ERG applications submitted to the EDA on or after the effective date; and b) spread out over several years, for Grow NJ and ERG incentive awards are only to be used up in 10 annual installments and 20 annual installments, respectively, following project completion.
The bill revises the definition of “Garden State Growth Zone” under Grow NJ and ERG, to include businesses located within an “aviation district.” The term “aviation district,” as revised by this bill, means all areas within a one-mile radius of, and including within the boundaries of the Atlantic City International Airport and the Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Technical Center. Given that the bill’s change to “aviation district” is targeted, the OLS expects only a limited number of projects to newly qualify for Grow NJ tax credits and ERG grants and tax credits.
Indirect State and Local Revenue Gain: The OLS cannot quantify the legislation’s indirect revenue gain to the State and local governments because of imperfect information on the number and attributes of creditable GSGZ projects. As a result, it is equally unclear whether the bill’s indirect State fiscal benefits will exceed its direct State revenue loss.
Analytical Framework: Like any government expenditure, economic development incentive awards inject new spending into the economy. Once businesses and individuals receive payments they would not receive absent the incentive awards, at least a portion of these payments will newly circulate in New Jersey’s economy and produce so-called “multiplier effects.” As the additional financial resources flow through the economy, they generate, as a byproduct, additional State and local revenue collections – the indirect revenue gain discussed in this section. Examples are enhanced local property tax collections accruing when an incentive recipient invests the incentive amount in facility improvements, which then appreciate the property’s value; or additional State sales and use tax collections from construction workers employed in the facility improvement spending their resultant income on taxable goods and services.
Indirect State fiscal effects offset the State’s direct cost of awarding incentives in part or potentially even in whole. Fiscal “multiplier effects” tend to be maximized whenever an incentive award serves the indispensable impetus for additional spending by the incentive recipient that would not otherwise occur. In this case, the incentive recipient magnifies the positive economic and fiscal impacts of the State’s economic outlay. Depending on the project and incentive attributes, the induced project may even yield indirect fiscal State benefits exceeding the cost of the subsidy. The larger the proportion of the public assistance relative to the financial outlay by the subsidized party, however, the lower the probability that the subsidized activity will generate positive net returns to the State.
In contrast, the State’s return on investment is negative whenever the State subsidizes a project that a taxpayer would have undertaken with or without public assistance. Because the financial inducement has not caused the project’s realization, none of its economic and fiscal feedback effects are attributable to the incentive, and therefore must be excluded from the tabulation of the incentive’s indirect fiscal benefits.
Nevertheless, even if the State provides financial assistance to a project that would be realized anyway, some, albeit comparatively small, indirect fiscal benefits may still accrue to the State. These would occur whenever the subsidy beneficiary spends the incentive award in New Jersey on goods and services that the beneficiary would otherwise not have procured. In that event the incentive award still represents an injection of additional cash into New Jersey’s economy whose ripple effects include the accumulation of indirect fiscal State benefits.
Lastly, given the high degree of integration of New Jersey’s economy with the national and global economies, an addition of spending in New Jersey will eventually leak into other jurisdictions and cease to circulate within the State. Consequently, any tabulation of a subsidy payment’s New Jersey feedback effects must disregard feedback effects that other jurisdictions will absorb.
Bill’s State Indirect Fiscal Effects: It is unclear whether the bill’s indirect fiscal State benefits will exceed its direct State revenue loss.
The bill may generate additional indirect fiscal benefit to the State in excess of the direct State revenue loss from awarding additional Grow NJ tax credits and ERG grants and tax credits. This is so because under the program the financial assistance must be a material factor in a project’s realization and the project must pass the EDA’s net benefit test. The multiplier-based net benefit test calculation for GSGZ projects is intended to ensure that the EDA will award incentives only to capital projects that are estimate to generate indirect State revenue equal to at least 100 percent of an inducement’s direct State revenue loss. Therefore, to the extent that the bill allows for Grow NJ tax credits and ERG grants and tax credits to projects that otherwise would be ineligible to receive the incentive award needed for project realization, the bill will yield fiscal net benefits to the State.
Irrespective of the magnitude of the bill’s indirect fiscal benefits, the analysis of its full impact on State finances is incomplete without considering the bill’s opportunity costs.
State Opportunity Costs: Given the State’s finite resources and its balanced budget requirement, the decision to award additional Grow NJ tax credits and ERG grants and tax credits to eligible GSGZ projects will invariably divert resources from policy alternatives to which they would have been applied absent the inducements. These policy alternatives also produce direct State costs and indirect State revenue collections. The concept of opportunity costs captures the value of these fiscal benefits the State foregoes as it redirects cash flows. Once opportunity costs are factored into the analysis, it is therefore possible for a bill to produce a net fiscal loss to the State even if its indirect fiscal benefits exceed its direct cost.
For example, if, instead of this legislation, the State invested in road construction, the bill would produce a net fiscal effect equal to the difference between the total fiscal impact of the additional Grow NJ and ERG incentive awards to eligible GSGZ projects – or the direct State cost of awarding additional Grow NJ and ERG incentive awards to those projects, minus the incentives’ indirect State fiscal effects – and that of the foregone road construction investment.
|
Section: |
Revenue, Finance, and Appropriations |
|
Analyst: |
Lead Fiscal Analyst |
|
Approved: |
Frank W. Haines III Legislative Budget and Finance Officer |
This fiscal estimate has been prepared pursuant to P.L.1980, c.67 (C.52:13B-6 et seq.).