As budget hearings continued in Trenton on Wednesday, business leaders are stepping up their efforts to get tax relief that’s currently missing from the Murphy administration’s budget. A group of nearly 100 businesses and trade groups sent a letter to the Legislature urging approval of a bill that would save employers more than $300 million in unemployment insurance tax increases. The legislation would use federal relief funds to cover that increase, which would be used to replenish the state’s depleted Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. The New Jersey Business Coalition believes businesses are still struggling and can’t afford to pay more.
Another business group, the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants, also takes issue with the budget proposal. CEO Ralph Albert Thomas told what members would have liked to see in Gov. Phil Murphy’s spending blueprint. A recent NJCPA survey found 55% of its members believe the proposed budget would leave New Jersey’s economy in worse shape. Some 22% thought the economy would improve under the budget, while 24% said it would stay the same.
A planned merger between Englewood Hospital and Medical Center and Hackensack Meridian Health won’t be happening after all. A federal appeals court upheld a lower-court decision to block the deal. The Federal Trade Commission challenged the merger back in 2020, saying it would have driven up the cost of hospital care in Bergen County. The merger would have led to Hackensack Meridian controlling three of the county’s six hospitals. After the decision, Englewood Health said it continues to thrive and remain strong while Hackensack Meridian said it was disappointed by the ruling.
