Seneca And Hughes Brief NJ Senate Budget Committee

From the AP courtesy of the Record/Herald:

Experts say state losing key jobs

New Jersey's economy has been expanding more slowly and weakly than the rest of the nation as the state loses key, high-paying jobs, two Rutgers University economists told state senators on Monday.

Rutgers professors Joseph Seneca and James Hughes told a Senate budget committee it must consider how its tax and spending decisions influence the economy as lawmakers mull Governor Corzine's nearly $31 billion budget proposal and its $1.9 billion in proposed tax increases.

"The new millennium has not been particularly kind to the New Jersey economy," Hughes said.

Seneca and Hughes told senators how the state, once a leader in telecommunications and pharmaceutical fields, is losing vital jobs. Increased taxes could cause businesses and high-wage earners to pack their bags, the men said.
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"The testimony this morning is nothing short of devastating," said Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance, R-Hunterdon. "New Jersey is in a terrible economic situation."
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Seneca said statistics that show New Jerseyans are among the highest earners in the nation mask income gains in other states, expensive state housing and unappealing job trends. For instance, he said the state in recent years has lost 118,000 high-paying jobs and replaced them with 113,000 average-paying jobs in education, health care and food services.

"A very lopsided and undesirable trade-off," Seneca said.
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"We can no longer take our economic and technological well-being for granted," Hughes told senators.