Help for small businesses in NJ

A Garden State lawmaker is sponsoring legislation that's designed to help small businesses hold onto their workers and create new positions at the same time.

Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande's (R-Freehold) measure would establish a small business job creation and preservation account program to encourage small business workforce expansion in New Jersey.

"It would allow businesses with no more than 100 workers to have tax-free savings accounts to keep those jobs in New Jersey and to expand new jobs," she said. "This would allow for small businesses to create jobs and to preserve jobs that are in danger of being eliminated."

She said while there are many programs designed to help larger corporations, smaller companies are often left behind.

"It's really hard for us to target them, to micro-target them in a way that we are just focusing, like a laser on job creation, and that's exactly what this bill does," Casagrande said.

Casagrande said she's been studying other states that have had success in job creation - including New York, where the savings account idea began - and it's working well.

"We have to find a way to encourage small businesses to create jobs," she said. "Knowing they are half our employers in the state of New Jersey. This is a great way to grow the private sector in New Jersey, and really the Main street private sector, not necessarily the giant corporations."

She added economic growth must be the state's top priority, and the bill will hopefully be considered as soon as possible by the Legislature.