New Jersey Policy Perspective

67k

Big Firms Get Big Breaks:
Time to Reform the Reforms

by Mary E. Forsberg
April 2007

News reports about companies like Enron breaking the law and suffering the consequences attract considerable attention. The public hears much less often about efforts undertaken daily by businesses trying to reduce or eliminate their tax liability. These activities are quiet, for the most part, because they are legal. Arguably, though, they often stretch the bounds of what was intended when tax laws and regulations were enacted--and they cost taxpayers a lot of money

Delaware Riverkeeper Network & the National Wildlife Federation

464k

Delaware River Deepening- Dumped Again

March 2007

For over a decade, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has tried to convince the public that deepening the main channel of the Delaware River to 45 feet is in the public interest and does not threaten the Delaware River ecosystem and is economically justified. This report is composed of three parts, an introduction and overview of the project, an evaluation of the Army Corps’ most recent economic analysis of the project, and a review of some of the more recent and more significant environmental concerns regarding the project.

Legal Services of New Jersey

3.8 megs

Eye on the Budget 2008- A Resource Guide: How New Jersey State Expenditures Relate to Basic Human Needs

by the Anti-Poverty Research Institute 2008

This report is the fifth edition of an ongoing analysis – the Eye on the Budget series of the Legal Services of New Jersey (LSNJ) Poverty Research Institute’s Budget Analysis Project – which seeks to make the New Jersey State Budget more understandable to the general public. The report looks at the state budget through a specific lens: how well budget decisions meet the most basic human needs of workers and other New Jerseyans who, by reason of low income or other factors, are among the state’s more disadvantaged and vulnerable people.

New Jersey Policy Perspective

8megs

The Adequacy of New Jersey's Minimum Wage

by Jon Shure
May 2007

Prior to adoption of the measure increasing it to $6.15 an hour in 2005 and $7.15 an hour last year, New Jersey's minimum wage had been raised by only 10 cents an hour over 13 years. The long delay left minimum wage workers with a lot of ground to make up—too much, in fact for the most recent increases to have kept pace with the rising cost of living.

New Jersey Policy Perspective

764k

Pay or We (Might) Go:
How CitiGroup Games the States and Cities

by Sarah Stecker and Dan Steinberg
June 2007

An analysis of Citigroup's practices in four states—New York, New Jersey, Kentucky and Texas—suggests that the world's largest financial institution rarely makes a move without getting taxpayers to help foot the bill.

South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)

1.5megs

A Community of Contrasts: South Asians in New Jersey

January 2008

The community's growth in New Jersey increased dramatically during the 1960s and 1970s, when students and professionals moved here. In the 1980s and 1990s, the families of the earlier wave of immigrants, as well as working class South Asians, made their homes in New Jersey townships.