The New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program and the New Jersey Business & Industry Association hosted the fifth annual National Manufacturing Day on Friday at The Palace at Somerset Park in Somerset.“Our whole goal here is to bring as many manufacturers together as possible to enjoy the day,” John Kennedy, CEO of NJMEP, said.
The full-day event consisted of over a dozen educational breakout sessions, keynote speeches by U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, and honors for those manufacturers who have pursued innovation in research, design and production within the state.
“Taking this job four years ago added another facet to my job (as an engineer) working with the state and federal governments,” Kennedy said. “Paying attention to what is going on in your state and country is critical to our industry.
“You can complain all you want, but then you have to be a part of the solution. If you’re not, then you are the problem.”
Kennedy encouraged those in attendance to contact their government officials regarding the regulatory and cost issues the manufacturing industry continues to face.
Guadagno said Kennedy certainly has.
“John Kennedy has been in my office or outside of my door virtually every day, if not every week, working with me and my office to make sure you all get the resources that you need to grow your companies,” Guadagno said. “Advocacy in Trenton, for better or for worse, is what you need. You need access to the elected public officials who have the ability to clear the way so you all can grow.”
According to Guadagno, manufacturers in New Jersey represent $41.6 billion of the state’s gross domestic product, put back into the economy roughly $28.7 billion and represent nearly 250,000 jobs.
“Forty-four percent of the applications for the Grow NJ Assistance Program — that was folded in, in a bipartisan way, just three years ago — were in manufacturing,” Guadagno said.
Lance (R-Flemington) also discussed the importance of bipartisan legislative support for manufacturing in New Jersey.
“The congressional district I serve includes nearly 600 manufacturing facilities that employ 40,000 residents of this state,” Lance said.
Lance currently serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and is vice chair of its subcommittee, Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, in which he “hears testimony from manufacturers across the United States as to what we are doing right and wrong in Washington and how we might improve,” he said.
“I think that we need fundamental tax reform, starting with simplicity and fairness that builds into job growth, higher paychecks and more take-home pay to encourage consumers to purchase goods,” Lance said.
Lance supports the House Republican tax reform plan backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, which would cut America’s 35 percent corporate income tax rate — “the highest in the industrialized world” — to a flat 20 percent rate.
“In a change designed to strengthen our global competitiveness, American job creators will no longer be taxed both abroad and at home on the same income,” Lane said. “We need to move to what is known as a territorial system of taxation, which exists throughout the industrialized world but not in the United States.
“Because ‘Made in America’ products and services currently face a crisis, American exports will no longer be taxed and imports will no longer be subsidized. Competition will incur on price, quality and on service rather than on tax regimes.
“Everyone in this room understands these principles. But our inside baseball tax code talk might get lost to many working Americans. I think that working families with welcome our message: Lower rates. Deduction increases. Closing loopholes. So that all Americans pay their fair share, but no more than their fair share.”
Guadagno said the fight to keep and grow manufacturing here in New Jersey is and has always been personal.
“In 1973, I was 13 years old living in Flint, Michigan. When they closed (a) manufacturing plant, two out of three people living there were now out of a job. My dad relied on those people for his living.
“In 1973, my dad was fired. He was so embarrassed that he didn’t tell me or the five other members of our family. I found out from the neighbor six months after he had been fired.
“That’s how devastating it is to families in New Jersey if manufacturing doesn’t stay and grow here. It’s personal. This is a fight we’re going to have to win every day by engaging together — and it’s a fight that we have to win.
“The way that we do that is by being ambassadors as to how New Jersey is a good place to raise a family and grow a company. They go together.”
The 22 companies recognized by NJMEP this year for their contributions to manufacturing in the state of New Jersey are:
Manufacturer of the Year: Best Young Manufacturing Company
Cape May Brewing Company (winner)
Premier Compaction Systems
PYCO
Manufacturer of the Year: Best Young Manufacturing Company
Cape May Brewing Company (winner)
Premier Compaction Systems
PYCO
Manufacturer of the Year: Small (Up to 50 employees)
Falstrom Company (winner)
Imperial Machine & Tool Co.
PNC Inc.
Royce Emporium Leather
Manufacturer of the Year: Medium (Up to 125 employees)
Magna-Power (winner)
Davion Inc.
Gambert Shirts
Weiss-Aug
Manufacturer of the Year: Large (More than 125 employees)
Huber Suhner Astrolab (winner)
IDL TechniEdge
LPS Industries
Sea Box
Innovator of the Year
General Devices (winner)
Alliance Sensors Group
Sam Thevanayagam, founder of Parts Life Inc.
Woodstock Farms
Raymond Hopp Award for Excellence
Mitch Cahn, president of Unionwear (winner)
Clifford F. Lindholm III, CEO and president of Falstrom Company
Karen Primak, CEO and president of IPAK
NJMEP also developed the “Made in New Jersey Honor Roll for Manufacturing & STEM” to recognize those in government and higher education who have stepped up to support the industry:
- U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.);
- U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-Morristown);
- State Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Randolph);
- Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno;
- Assemblyman Troy Singleton (D-Moorestown);
- Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic);
- Christopher Molloy, senior vice president, Office of Research and Economic Development at Rutgers University ;
- Donald Sebastian, CEO and president of the New Jersey Innovation Institute and senior vice president of technology and business development at the New Jersey Institute of Technology;
- Harold Wirths, former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
For more information on the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program and its annual Manufacturing Day events, please visit its website.
