Trenton – Senate President Steve Sweeney today stressed the need for robust legislation to spur economic recovery at the  Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey’s (CCSNJ) ‘Meet the Policymakers’ event.

“Our main priority in the months ahead is ensuring a strong recovery from the coronavirus pandemic,” said Senator Sweeney (D-Gloucester/Salem/Cumberland). “We need to ensure that we are doing everything we can to help businesses and workers who have been affected. We need to enact the New Jobs for New Jersey Act that Senator Nilsa Cruz-Perez and I are sponsoring to provide tax credits for businesses to hire, in addition to passing the new tax incentives legislation on which we reached an agreement this week.

“We approved important legislation sponsored by Senator Dawn Addiego yesterday that would extend unemployment benefits by eight weeks for workers whose eligibility is starting to run out right before Christmas and enable businesses to continue to use the job-sharing furlough program to slowly bring back the valued employees they were forced to lay off. We understand how hard South Jersey was hit by COVID-19, a lot later than other parts of the state too, and Assemblyman John Buzichelli and I are working on a regional approach to future shutdown decisions,” Senator Sweeney said.

The event, held virtually over Zoom, provided an opportunity for Senator Sweeney to provide updates on recent policy initiatives and future priorities to business leaders from seven counties.

“Even during a pandemic, the tradition of hosting Senate President Sweeney as the CCSNJ’s final event of the year endures – and the timing could not be more critical,” said Christina Renna, President & CEO of CCSNJ. “The business community was thrilled to hear details on the tax incentive proposal being debated by the Legislature, as well as a look-ahead on what to expect the Senate to take up in 2021. As always, we appreciate the Senate President’s support and candor as businesses look for assistance to help them rebound from this tumultuous year.”

The CCSNJ is the region’s largest, most active, and influential business organization, representing Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem counties.