A task force investigating New Jersey's controversial tax break program released a report Monday concluding that fraud and mismanagement tainted the $11 billion effort to bring new jobs and businesses to the state.
The report included new evidence of the influence of Democratic Party boss George E. Norcross III in steering tax breaks to favored businesses and nonprofits located along the Camden waterfront.
In a November 2014 email included in the report, a Cooper Health executive acknowledged that the hospital did not intend to leave New Jersey but was "Quietly" seeking a lease quote for office space in Philadelphia to satisfy the tax break program's legal requirements.
In its report, the task force found that special interests helped craft the 2013 tax break law to benefit a select group of companies, and that the state was ill-equipped to vet and monitor tax break applicants.
The tax break law also gave unique advantage to Camden applicants, the report found.
The report also said that the $86 million tax break for Norcross' insurance company, Conner Strong & Buckelew, would have been much smaller without language added to the tax law by Parker McCay, the South Jersey law firm headed by his brother Philip Norcross.
Since the program came under scrutiny, every company receiving a New Jersey tax break has been asked to go through recertification, and some companies have volunteered to terminate their awards.
https://www.propublica.org/article/more-instances-of-fraud-and-mismanagement-over-new-jersey-tax-incentives-surface-in-new-report
The report included new evidence of the influence of Democratic Party boss George E. Norcross III in steering tax breaks to favored businesses and nonprofits located along the Camden waterfront.
In a November 2014 email included in the report, a Cooper Health executive acknowledged that the hospital did not intend to leave New Jersey but was "Quietly" seeking a lease quote for office space in Philadelphia to satisfy the tax break program's legal requirements.
In its report, the task force found that special interests helped craft the 2013 tax break law to benefit a select group of companies, and that the state was ill-equipped to vet and monitor tax break applicants.
The tax break law also gave unique advantage to Camden applicants, the report found.
The report also said that the $86 million tax break for Norcross' insurance company, Conner Strong & Buckelew, would have been much smaller without language added to the tax law by Parker McCay, the South Jersey law firm headed by his brother Philip Norcross.
Since the program came under scrutiny, every company receiving a New Jersey tax break has been asked to go through recertification, and some companies have volunteered to terminate their awards.
https://www.propublica.org/article/more-instances-of-fraud-and-mismanagement-over-new-jersey-tax-incentives-surface-in-new-report
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