NJ Business Cautiously Optimistic About 2017
TRENTON, NJ. (CBS) -- Business owners in the Garden State are expecting better times in the year to come, according to an annual survey released by their lobbying group in Trenton.
It's the 58th year that the New Jersey Business and Industry Association used its Business Outlook survey to ask members large and small to look ahead. CEO Michele Siekerka.
"They feel that hiring, sales and profits are predicted to rise. However members still report concern about the state's economic future," CEO Michele Siekerka told KYW Newsradio.
In fact, one in three suggest things will get worse statewide in the first six months of the year. Blame ongoing concerns over health care costs, property taxes and the overall cost of doing business in New Jersey.
She concedes Governor Chris Christie has, for the most part, done what he can to control what are the highest property taxes in America.
"While the Governor has held those taxes at bay with his 2% cap, the fact is it's still a 2% increase on what was still always the most expensive," Siekerka said.
And Christie leaves office in a year. No telling what a new Governor might do on that front.