Christie Administration Saves New Jersey Employers $1 Billion in Taxes
Targeted News Service |
"Through sound fiscal management and our anti-fraud measures, we have brought this important safety net back into the black years before many predicted. The immediate result is the end of annual, compounding tax increases on
Anti-fraud measures and reforms undertaken by the
"The bi-partisan legislation lessened the tax bite that state law would have imposed on our employers during the recession," said Commissioner Wirths. "The employers still had to pay a bit more in taxes each year, under law, but the hikes were smaller and gradual. By bringing the fund into solvency today, we have stopped additional hikes in state and federal taxes, and we are now able to scale back employer taxes."
Anti-Fraud
* Approximately
* The first measure, the simple process of cross-checking
* Other major anti-fraud measures imposed included software installed to detect claims being illegally filed from foreign Internet Protocol or IP addresses and the Identity Verification checking that requires people filing
Federal Treasury Offset Program or "TOPS"
* Recovered nearly
* Through TOPS, the
* The system is expected to net the fund another
Cross-Match Against County Inmates
*
Debit Card
* Moving from paper checks to debit cards and direct deposit for
End Diversions
* Between 1993 and 2006, taxes that were supposed to be paid into the
* Bipartisan legislation, endorsed by
TESTIMONY:
Fiscal Year 2015
Hello Chairman Sarlo, Vice-Chairman Stack and honored members of the Committee
Thank you for this opportunity to discuss
Before I outline a few of the many achievements made by the hardworking people in my department, allow me to introduce some of the executive staff members sitting at the table with me today.
* Deputy Commissioner
* Chief Financial Officer
* And Assistant Commissioner of Income Security Ronald Marino
Seated behind me are other members of my senior staff, all of whom contribute each day to the yeoman's task of maintaining a smooth operation of the
During past appearances before this committee, I discussed the many steps we took to streamline operations and to protect, as well as save, tax dollars while continuing the important work of helping people who have become unemployed or under-employed to restart their careers.
Allow me to update you today on the status of the
Back in 2009, the fund was declared broke. This very important safety net was rendered insolvent by two decades of diversions totaling
When I first appeared before this committee in 2010, the
Today, I am proud to announce that the
We have reached this historic point as a direct result of our careful and deliberate steps to protect and improve the financial management of the Fund. The immediate result of our work was realized in January, as we spared
Federal tax assessments, required to replenish the Fund under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act or FUTA, had been increasing and compounding annually on
By eliminating the deficit, we brought the fund back into the black last year in time to prompt a reset of the annual FUTA tax assessment to basic levels for Garden State businesses. Because we have returned the
The importance of bringing the Fund into solvency cannot be overstated.
The deficit placed severe and increasing tax burdens on the very people we are relying upon to improve our state economy _
Today I am also pleased to announce that
This turnaround was not accomplished by happenstance. Solvency is the result of key reforms undertaken by the
* More than
* Another
Let me be clear, the
I realized the extent of the problem when I first arrived in
This safety net was established for one purpose - to assist the hard working people in our state who, through no fault of their own, lose their jobs and need support while getting back on their feet. The first precaution we implemented was the simplest measure we put into place, and it remains the most effective.
The bulk of the
Other major anti-fraud measures we adopted include:
* Software we installed to detect claims being illegally filed from foreign IP addresses
* Identity Verification checking that requires people filing
All of our anti-fraud programs are designed to prevent tax dollars from improperly leaving the
Last year, we joined the Federal Treasury Offset Program or "TOPS" to recoup improperly collected unemployment insurance payments by seizing refunds and credits the individuals are due on their annual federal income tax.
I am proud to announce today that we have collected nearly
We also are going after employers who owe back taxes. In March, we collected nearly
We are committed to protecting this important safety net for
National studies show the longer someone remains unemployed, the tougher it becomes for them to get back to work.
Let me briefly outline just a few of our front-line efforts:
There also is Jobs4Jersey.com, which my department launched in 2011 as an on-line portal to all services offered to re-employ job-seekers in
Most importantly, Jobs4Jersey.com contains On-Ramp, a state-of-the-art search-engine that matches job-seekers with employers by scanning and comparing skills, not former job titles. For employers, Jobs4Jersey.com is a human resources department, allowing businesses to find people with the exact skills they want by basing talent searches on a list of specific abilities and ranking responses. On-Ramp takes the work out of the recruitment process for small companies.
Today, more than 11,000 employers and 300,000 job-seekers are registered with Jobs4Jersey.com, and the site showcases about 200,000 job openings each week.
We also continue to reform and improve our grant programs. As I have said before, we do not want to train people for jobs that no longer exist. We are fully focused on the major industry clusters driving
Our Skills4Jersey program, which used to be known as our customized training grants, awarded
Opportunity4Jersey is a targeted-training program that continues to evolve as we gather data from employers about their hiring needs. It has been very successful, and demonstrates the effectiveness of skills-focused approaches to unemployment.
In Fiscal Year 2013 we issued about
The formula works. We have had significant success in placing graduates from these programs into jobs.
In
I tried to explain that they created their own opportunity by pursuing the training and sticking with the program. But they couldn't express enough gratitude about landing jobs - good jobs. And during that discussion, I found out one of them had done so well that he had already been promoted to supervisor.
We gave these people the skills that employers needed to find to hire them.
What we need to do is to create more partnerships with many more employers to expand this approach. It requires continued and expanding efforts by everyone involved in workforce development, including our educational institutions.
Toward that end, I joined Lt. Governor
We found some impressive collaborations, such as
This month, my department will move forward with a career awareness campaign to educate students, as well as our long-term unemployed and other job-seekers, about the occupations and credentials that are in demand. We also plan to explore additional innovative training programs this year.
We are not guessing. We have people on staff, constantly analyzing employment trend data and industry clusters that are driving
It is around these industry clusters that we have built our Talent Networks because these industry clusters employ more than two-thirds of our workers and pay more than two-thirds of the wages received in
At this time, I'd like to again thank the Committee for this opportunity to talk about the Department.
I would be happy to answer any questions the Committee has for me.
Thank you.
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