Attorneys for five separate businesses, all with ties to South Jersey powerbroker George Norcross, allege in a letter to the task force that the governor overstepped his legal authority in creating the group, and has imposed “arbitrary restrictions” on their right to respond to “false accusations” by the administration.

The primary legal counsel scrutinizing wrongdoing and corruption in the state’s multi-billion dollar Grow New Jersey tax break program has so far charged New Jersey nearly $1.3 million, according to documents obtained by NJBIZ.

If the governor and lawmakers cannot come up with a replacement beforehand, Gov. Phil Murphy said he would prefer letting the Grow New Jersey incentive program expire in July with nothing in its place, rather than extend the program.

“They literally have nothing to do with each other,” the governor said at an unrelated event in Newark Monday morning, setting aside concerns that the push for adult-use marijuana could be threatened by his administration's scrutiny of tax break programs at the NJEDA.

Erin Gold's suspension comes on the heels of Thursday's meeting of the Murphy administration's tax break task force.

A Republican lawmaker wants to fold the embattled Schools Development Authority into the state Treasury “to make it more accountable,” rather than into the Economic Development Authority, which itself has come under scrutiny over its handling of tax incentive programs. Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce, R-26th District, plans to formally introduce a measure dissolving the SDA and transferring its functions, the financing ...

A politically connected law firm whose chief executive is Philip Norcross, brother of South Jersey powerbroker and insurance executive George Norcross, had far-reaching control over how lawmakers and former-Gov. Chris Christie crafted the multi-billion dollar, lucrative Grow New Jersey tax break program, according to various witnesses who testified at a task force Gov. Phil Murphy convened to scrutinize the incentive ...

A high-ranking official at the Economic Development Authority testified Thursday that he knew of, but did not provide information to the state comptroller about a whistleblower complaint involving abuse and defrauding of the state’s multi-billion dollar tax break program, during the comptroller’s audit of the very program called Grow New Jersey. Fred Cole, senior vice president of operations at the ...

Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday night that he and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo were “crystal clear” that New Jersey commuters would not be “double-taxed” under New York’s proposed congestion pricing scheme. This comes amidst an awkward stumbling block last week, when Murphy declared that he and Cuomo reached a deal or “conceptual understanding” on how to make New Jersey ...

Gov. Phil Murphy’s task force and team of lawyers are scheduled to meet later Thursday morning to figure out just who received Grow New Jersey tax breaks that may have defrauded and abused the incentive program. Today’s hearing comes at the heels of two bombshell reports yesterday – one from the New York Times and the other jointly from ProPublica ...

“I’ve got to tell you, I’m extremely proud, I’m not apologizing for what we did for Camden, I’m very proud of what we’ve done for Camden,” the state's Legislature's top Deomocrat told NJBIZ at an unrelated event Wednesday in Eatontown. “Camden had a plan, they worked a plan, and the results are clear: Camden is better because of the work that was done,” Sweeney added.

As talks ramp up surrounding the state's fiscal year 2020 budget, and efforts to hash out a new set of tax incentives to replace expiring ones intensifies, legislators like Assembly Budget Chair Eliana Pintor-Marin are hoping to keep the two discussions independent of each other. A challenge given that both must be resolved by July 1.