The basics:
- John Boyd Jr.: New Jersey made gains in film production, AI under Gov. Phil Murphy
- Persistent concerns remain over high taxes, energy costs, regulation, affordability
- Boyd warns New Jersey losing labor-intensive projects to states like Texas, Florida, the Carolinas
- Urges Gov. Mikie Sherrill to prioritize energy supply, housing to improve competitiveness
With New Jersey’s governorship newly turned over and a fresh administration setting its agenda, business leaders are assessing where the state stands competitively — and what must come next.
NJBIZ recently spoke to John Boyd Jr., principal of The Boyd Co., a site selection consultancy founded in Princeton and now headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla. Boyd advises corporations on relocation and expansion decisions across the country. And he offers a national perspective on how New Jersey is viewed in boardrooms weighing major investment decisions.
In a wide-ranging interview, Boyd assessed the state’s economic development trajectory over the past eight years. While highlighting meaningful gains in areas such as film production and artificial intelligence, he also underscored persistent concerns about taxes, energy costs, regulation and overall affordability.
His insights highlight both the progress made and the structural challenges the new Sherrill administration must confront to reshape New Jersey’s business climate narrative.
This is part one of the interview. It opened with an analysis of Gov. Phil Murphy’s two terms in office.
First the good news
“Broadly, how would you rate how the eight years under Gov. Phil Murphy for economic development here in the state? And just kind of the assessment of the folks in your world, how they view New Jersey and how it’s kind of gone over the last eight years?” NJBIZ asked.
“We can start off with some of the positives,” Boyd told NJBIZ. “New Jersey has become a global powerhouse in film and multimedia industry. Murphy has been also effective in really promoting New Jersey to a global corporate audience.
“Keep in mind, Murphy was an ambassador to Germany. He was a successful executive at Goldman Sachs. Murphy understands the importance of the global business networks. He brought that mindset to his economic development approach a leadership in New Jersey.
“AI, New Jersey, is a leader in AI,” Boyd continued. “That has much to do with some of the public-private partnerships that he helped promote. That really helps New Jersey in all of its target industries, like health care, banking, financial services, and, of course, film and multimedia.”
Taking taxes from bad to worse
But on the other side of the ledger, Boyd noted, eight years later New Jersey still struggles with a lot of the same problems such as high costs, high taxes, high regulatory burdens and affordability challenges.
“That impact workers and businesses,” said Boyd. “With respect to high taxes, Murphy has actually made that problem even worse – with the nation’s highest corporate income tax rate.”
Boyd highlighted how affordability is the current buzzword.
“It’s the buzzword in politics,” said Boyd. “It’s the buzzword in the business world. And just as Sherrill is approaching her housing agenda through the context of affordability, she also needs to realize that economic development is also about making New Jersey more affordable to businesses. That’s cutting taxes, cutting red tape. It’s bringing more energy supply to the market to lower costs, etc.”
From there, NJBIZ asked Boyd whether those positives, such as New Jersey’s film and television production growth and its robust efforts in AI, are breaking through nationally and resonating?
“It is,” said Boyd. “New Jersey is one of the new Hollywoods. This is becoming a global story. Folks in LA are very aware of the success and attractiveness of New Jersey for the film industry, given the sectors, diverse skill sets, and New Jersey’s unique global connectivity.”
Technical achievements
He continued on the AI and technology efforts.
“A couple brick-and-mortar examples are the AI hub in in Princeton. He [Murphy] did the fintech accelerator program in Hoboken [NJ FAST],” said Boyd, referencing two of the state’s new strategic innovation centers, which NJBIZ has reported extensively on. “Those public-private partnerships. The HELIX [Health and Life Science Exchange] is another example.
“Helping facilitate the presence in Atlantic City – the NJEDA has a presence there with the FAA Technical Center. And the Esports Innovation Center at Stockton in Atlantic City,” Boyd continued. “These are all things that are his economic development accomplishments.”
But, Boyd stressed, to really fix New Jersey’s business climate, it involves a lot of heavy lifting.
“And most of the heavy lifting has not been done,” he continued “And that’s reflected in virtually every business climate survey you look at. New Jersey tends to finish at or near the bottom in terms of the most expensive places to do business.”
Losing labor-intensive operations
It creates an interesting juxtaposition.
New Jersey is making major strides in terms of adopting the types of public-private partnerships that can yield high economic impact, such as with these SICs. They also combine with New Jersey’s perennial strengths such as an educated workforce, great schools, location and access to infrastructure.
A company will maintain an operation in New Jersey because of some talent or workforce or infrastructure assets that are important to the company. But a lot of the labor-intensive work, or more of the expansive real estate investments are happening in another state. And that means New Jersey is losing taxable income and jobs.
– John Boyd Jr., principal, The Boyd Co.
But the state also still has those realities of high taxes, a tough regulatory burden and other challenges that make it tougher to compete with other states for business as well as economic development opportunities and jobs.
“What we’re seeing is a lot of the more labor-intensive operations of companies are being relocated to states like the Carolinas, like Texas, Tennessee, Florida,” Boyd explained. “A company will maintain an operation in New Jersey because of some talent or workforce or infrastructure assets that are important to the company. But a lot of the labor-intensive work, or more of the expansive real estate investments are happening in another state. And that means New Jersey is losing taxable income and jobs.”
Weighing opportunity costs
During the corporate transit fee fight a few years back, that scenario emerged as a major concern of top business leaders about potential downstream impacts of the tax.
“And there’s one more part to that,” Boyd continued. “It’s also something called opportunity costs.
“It’s companies from around the globe that don’t even consider New Jersey for a new project or for relocation. When Honeywell or Mercedes Benz announces its headquarter relocation out of New Jersey, it becomes front page news the next day. But what you’ll never know are the hundreds of companies around the country that are planning moves right now that are not even considering New Jersey.
“And that’s what we call opportunity costs, and it’s something that we see in our business,” he explained. “Think of a couple high growth target industries for New Jersey, like aviation and even the blue economy. A lot of the blue economy projects that we’re involved with, or companies, are maybe including Jersey just as sort of a benchmark. Maybe they have an affiliate relationship – some sort of connection to New Jersey.
“But then, as the process unfolds, New Jersey is the first state that’s actually eliminated. That’s what we call opportunity costs.”
Energizing an all-of-the-above approach
The discussion then turned to what companies hope for from the new governor. And how Gov. Mike Sherrill can change the narrative in terms of the state’s business climate and reputation.
He pointed to two big issues, housing and energy. Boyd also noted Sherrill came right out of the gate with two executive orders aimed at addressing high energy costs.
“Number one is the energy agenda, the freezes, which so many in the business community really look at more than anything else as a virtue signal,” said Boyd. “The real answer is what Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania or Ned Lamont in Connecticut are doing. By the way, both Democrats. But promoting an all-of-the-above approach to energy. It’s natural gas. It’s renewables. But it’s also strategies to bring in more battery technology companies, the lithium industry. Yes, it’s renewables, but it’s also nuclear – real nuclear. It’s promoting new SMR [small modular reactors].”
‘It’s the power, stupid’
Boyd stressed the all encompassing approach, such as what Pennsylvania is doing right across the river, as what business leaders look for to bring down costs as quickly as possible.
He voiced his opposition to the all-in bet by the Murphy administration on offshore wind. Boyd cited the negative economic development consequences, pointing to New Jersey’s 130 miles of coastline that he describes as one of the state’s greatest economic drivers and economic development assets.
“Do we want politics by virtue signal or do we want real policies to actually make the state more competitive for corporate investment?” said Boyd. “And to attract high-paying jobs. And to make the state more affordable for residents and for businesses.”
Boyd described just how important an issue energy supply and price is in the site selection process.
“It’s a major issue today,” he said. “It’s a major site selection factor. You remember the old James Carville saying – it’s the economy, stupid. Today, right now, it’s the power, stupid – with respect to many, many site selection projects around the country.”
Please stay tuned for the next part of this interview.
The post Boyd on NJ business climate in post-Murphy era appeared first on NJBIZ.
