Testimony Submitted by BioNJ Re: A-4/S-3295
December 18, 2020
Chairman Burzichelli, Vice Chairman Schaer, Members of the Committee,
Thank you for allowing me to testify today. My name is Debbie Hart, and I serve as the President and CEO of BioNJ.
I will be brief. As you may know, BioNJ represents New Jersey’s life sciences industry. Our members employ hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans, creating billions in annual economic impact. We are the “nation’s medicine’s chest” where many breakthrough and lifesaving treatments have been developed for Patients around the world. This tradition has continued during the COVID pandemic where dozens of New Jersey companies have worked tirelessly to develop COVID treatments, vaccines and diagnostics – all while continuing their work in curing cancer, rare disease, and other unmet medical needs.
We believe our state can continue to be a global leader in delivering cures to Patients around the world. But we must act quickly to ensure our State remains at the forefront of exciting new research in and development in oncology, cell, and gene therapy.
Why? Other states in the region have pursued policies in recent years to encourage growth in the life sciences sector. I’ve testified on some of these programs before: Massachusetts and its multi-billion-dollar investment in the life sciences, Pennsylvania and its Ben Franklin Initiative, New York and its novel startup program resulting in unprecedented venture capital and spinout companies. These programs are all designed to lure growing life sciences companies from New Jersey and elsewhere to their respective states.
Thankfully, New Jersey has had programs to support our early stage innovation companies. Programs such as the NJEDA’s NOL program and the Angel Investor Tax Credit program. And other incentive programs – including the Grow NJ program – proved to help spur economic activity in high growth industries in our state.
That’s why I am so pleased to see the proposal for further investment in these programs. Under this proposed legislation our Angel Investor program would be one of the very best in the region. Our successful NOL program would be able to serve even more growing companies working on tomorrow’s cures. And perhaps most exciting of all is the one-of-a-kind Evergreen Innovation Fund which will result in critically needed new venture capital coming into New Jersey.
However, we do have a concern with the Emerge program requirement that 80 percent of incented employees pay New Jersey taxes. While I understand the need for such a provision, this threshold could be very difficult for many of our companies in the life sciences sector to meet.
Meanwhile, to those who may have concerns about the financial impact of these programs on the State’s economy, there are increased taxpayer protections over previous programs including increased transparency and a net benefit test of 300 or 400% for most of these programs meaning that these companies must return 300 to 400% of the benefit they receive in the form of job creation, taxes and overall economic development benefits to the State’s coffers. This is important. Also I wanted to applaud the fact that throughout this proposal, there is a commitment to inclusion.
Mr. Chairman, BioNJ’s believes that Patients should have access to the right treatment at the right time - Because Patients Can’t Wait. I believe in the mission of our sector: to find therapies and cures and to improve Patient access to these therapies. And I believe today’s legislation will help our State realize that promise and continue to be a place where that innovation happens in an inclusive way.
Thank you to Governor Murphy, Speaker Coughlin, Senate President Sweeney and other legislative leaders for their work toward making this a reality.
Thank you for your time,
Debbie Hart
President and CEO
