Being located in New Jersey, one of the epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic, necessitated immediate action from Garden State Initiative. As the state’s economy went into lockdown, GSI transitioned its social media accounts into important hubs of information for workers and businesses who suffered the immediate displacement. Keeping with its mission, GSI continued to be a leading voice in advocating for measures that would aid New Jersey immediately, but also position the state to emerge from the pandemic poised for economic recovery. GSI has been invited to join the Business Coalition to support policy development intended to relax or eliminate government regulations and oversight to facilitate a “quick recovery.”

As the state has experienced a dramatic decline in personal driving, GSI analysis illustrated how that decline, combined with reduced gasoline prices, will likely result in a significant increase in the state’s Gas Tax. GSI has called on the Legislature to amend a 2016 law that allows the state’s treasurer to increase the tax unless a revenue threshold is reached. The well received analysis resulted in an op-ed placed in one of the state’s leading newspapers and GSI’s president, Regina Egea, interviewed on New Jersey’s leading radio station and Saturday Night Live alum Joe Piscopo’s New York City radio program.

GSI called for NJ Transit, which received over a $1 billion in emergency federal aid, to seize the opportunity to amend their operations to enact changes to best position the agency for when the state gets back to work. Thus far, that call has yielded an increase in activity on the implementation of a critical safety program that will enhance service when normal service resumes.

Along with several regular legislative partners, GSI is galvanizing public opposition in the media and our Facebook and Twitter feeds to the embarrassing pursuit of toll and tax increases at the same time the government is calling on residents and businesses to be “in this together” to fight COVID-19. First resisting any accountability, the governor then condoned “streaming hearings” (instead of public gatherings) in early April by the NJ Turnpike/ Garden State Parkway/Atlantic City Expressway on their proposed 25-42% toll hikes. In editorials, the Asbury Park Press and Press of Atlantic City agreed with GSI that these hearings are shameful. Support is also coming from US Representative Jeff Van Drew, who said that holding the hearings was an “unbelievably tone-deaf move.”