Former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee for governor, released a 10-point platform to improve affordability in the state as the mail-in voting period nears.
Ciattarelli’s plans include a restructured school funding formula, reduced business taxes, a cap on property taxes, and a promise to veto so-called pork spending in the state budget. Inflation has driven up grocery prices, energy bills, and housing costs for New Jerseyans of late, and affordability has been the top issue of this year’s campaign.
“You could raise a family, you could start a business, and you could retire here,” he told reporters Thursday. “Those are the things that people feel terribly insecure, if not fearful of, today, and I refuse to be the governor of a state in which people live with insecurity and fear.”
Ciattarelli blamed Gov. Phil Murphy for the increase in prices. He said the governor’s efforts to implement clean energy have backfired and praised Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who Ciattarelli said is operating using coal, natural gas, and nuclear facilities.
“My opponent has a tendency to blame people in Washington, D.C., for what’s happening,” he said. “This lies at the feet of the Murphy administration. They broke it.”
Ciattarelli’s platform includes proposals to reduce income taxes for all taxpayers and consolidate tax brackets, but didn’t provide specific numbers. He said he would reduce the Corporation Business Tax from 11.5%, a rate which he says stifles business, by one percentage point every year over five years. He also proposed prohibiting property tax increases due to home improvements, as well as making health insurance premiums and student loan interest tax 100% tax-deductible.
“Why are we reassessing homes when someone does home improvement? This is just another way of punishing homeowners when they’re doing something to improve their wealth, and that will end on day one of my administration,” he said.
The Republican unveiled the platform outside a grocery store in Elizabeth. He offered the creation of a Department of Commerce to coordinate support for businesses and the appointment of a chief technology officer to update the state’s technology. Ciattarelli said a small business’s first $100,000 in income should be tax-free, and the first $100,000 of payroll should be exempt from payroll taxes.
Ciattarelli faces Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) in this fall’s general election. Mail-in voting starts Saturday, and the pair face off in the first of two debates on Sunday evening.
If elected, many of his proposals would need to be passed in the Legislature. While Republicans could win control of the Assembly this year, the state Senate isn’t up for re-election until 2027, meaning the first two years of a Ciattarelli governorship would have to grapple with at least one Democratic-controlled chamber.
Sherrill launched her affordability agenda in May. Her platform focused on housing, energy, health care, taxes, child care, and food prices.
