State commission re-examining Panasonic tax credits; Newark reportedly nervous

SECAUCUS –Pleas from Secaucus officials and Hartz Mountain Industries asking the state to rescind $102.4 million in tax credits to Panasonic may be having an effect.
Less than a month after New Jersey’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) approved $102.4 million in tax credits to Panasonic if the company moves from Secaucus to Newark, the EDC has agreed to take a second look at whether the state’s Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit Program pits municipalities against one another.
Panasonic, the multi-billion-dollar company that has called Secaucus home since 1974, is considering a move elsewhere, and is weighing tax incentive options in several cities, including Newark, Brooklyn, Chicago, and sites in California. Given the possibility that Panasonic might pack up and move more than 800 jobs out of state, EDA last month approved the tax credits through the Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit program, in an effort to keep the company in New Jersey. The program gives tax credits to certain companies that employ at least 250 full-time workers and build or rent office space in or near nine designated urban transit communities. Newark is among the nine designated urban transit hubs, Secaucus is not.
But Secaucus officials and Hartz, Panasonic’s current landlord, believe the tax incentives offered to the company have placed the town in a losing competition with Newark for Panasonic’s affections.
Last week after meeting with representatives from Secaucus and Hartz, the EDC agreed to have attorneys review the Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit to gauge the fairness of the program.
Now, according to a report in today’s edition of NJBiz.com, Newark officials are nervous that the EDC is re-examining its decision regarding the Panasonic tax credit. Quoting an unnamed source, NJBIZ.com characterizes Newark as being in “total, absolute panic.” The report goes on to question why Newark failed to send a lobbyist to the EDC meeting when Secaucus and Hartz had their representatives present.
“Little Secaucus could figure this out, and big Newark could not?” asked the website’s “incredulous” source. – E. Assata Wright