Jersey accountants don’t want a state bank, survey says

A new survey by the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants of its members finds they overwhelmingly don't approve of Gov. Phil Murphy's plan to establish a state bank.

NJCPA Executive Director Ralph Albert Thomas says 85% of the 489 members who responded to the survey turned thumbs down on the idea of a New Jersey public bank.

"Why should New Jersey go down this road when it has bigger fish to fry?" he asked. "Why introduce something else to be in competition? Why not work to improve the relationship with ... the credit unions, community banks and the larger banks, too?"

The governor has established a 14-member commission to develop a plan for a public bank within a year. The committee will be holding public meetings to discuss the plan.

"Oart of the concern that's been echoed in the survey is, 'let's deal with some of the problems that we have already,' as opposed to creating something else that could potentially be an additional problem down the road," Thomas said.

He said surveyed accountants were skeptical about the state's ability to manage a financial institution.

"A of couple of states have thought about this but they haven't moved forward with it," he said.

One in 10 in the survey approved of the establishment of a State Public bank, with the hope that it might attract younger people into New Jersey to start businesses and assist younger adults with loans for business or housing.

Joe Cutter is the afternoon news anchor on New Jersey 101.5,

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