District 38 Senator Bob Gordon (D - Bergen and Passaic) has introduced legislation designed to help encourage small businesses to hire those who have been out of work for 30 days or longer by providing them with a credit on their payroll taxes.

Gordon and Senate President Steve Sweeney (D – Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland) introduced this bill, which is also known as the  “New Jobs for New Jersey Tax Credit Program” last Friday, according to a statement from the New Jersey Senate Democrats.

Under the program any business that employs 100 or fewer full-time people would become eligible for a tax credit against either their corporate businesses or gross income tax, whichever applies to them, for each unemployed person they newly hire. This applies to anyone who has been unemployed for more than 30 days.

"Tax breaks won't lower unemployment if the people businesses are hiring to get a tax break already have jobs," said Gordon in a statement. "Unemployment won't go down unless businesses hire one of the many tremendously talented candidates who are currently unemployed. The jobless won't have optimism if they keep getting passed over time and again. This is truly about putting people back on the radar so they can get back into jobs and get a paycheck."

“It is important to note that ‘unemployed’ element of the bill. We want people moving off the unemployment rolls and we want to stimulate hiring among small businesses. Not only will this do something to reduce our 35 year high unemployment rate, but we specifically believe it can help reduce unemployment among those groups hardest hit, particularly women, the working poor, and minorities,” said Sweeney.

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