Q&A with New Jersey’s Gubernatorial Candidates
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September 3, 2025
New Jersey CPA asked New Jersey’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rep. Mikie Sherrill and Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli to provide comments on their top priorities for the state; what can be done to attract and retain businesses; taxes; pensions; and how to improve the state’s economic well-being.
What big challenges do you think New Jersey will face over the next four years and how would you lead the state to get through them?
Jack Ciattarelli: New Jersey is facing at least four major crises: Affordability, public safety, education and overdevelopment. Under eight years of Phil Murphy and 25 years of democratic control of the State Legislature, New Jersey’s taxes have become the nation’s highest and our budget has ballooned; we’ve handcuffed our police and coddled criminals resulting in more crime; our school funding formula is unfair and our academic rankings are slipping; and our suburbs are being paved over due to increasing housing mandates from Trenton. As governor, I will take our state in a new direction focused on making New Jersey a place people can live, work, raise a family and retire with dignity. I encourage everyone to visit my website at Jack4NJ.com/platform to see my detailed, commonsense plans.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill: The high cost of living is the top issue I hear about across New Jersey, whether that’s the cost of housing and rent, utilities or healthcare. Tackling our affordability crisis will be my top priority as governor. But now, our state faces additional challenges from Trump’s spending bill, which will gut healthcare access, increase energy and housing costs, raise taxes by extending the SALT cap, and make groceries less affordable — a blow to New Jerseyans at a time when prices are already sky high. This bill will create an enormous hole in the state budget. We already send $70 billion more of our tax dollars to the federal government than we get back, and this additional hit will make full pension payments and property tax relief programs harder to achieve. If the federal government won’t run the programs we need, I’ll claw back our federal dollars and run them myself.
What are your top three priorities for the state over the next year?
Jack Ciattarelli: My priorities will be to reduce the cost of living in our state so that every resident can have access to their own American Dream, just like my grandparents and parents did. That will occur through cutting and capping property taxes and freezing them for all seniors, reducing the number of tax brackets and lowering income taxes, and cutting the business tax in half to make New Jersey an engine of economic growth again that can compete with our neighboring states and states throughout the country. I will appoint an Attorney General who empowers the police to do their jobs. I will fix our unfair school funding formula that currently punishes good schools and rewards failing ones, and I will end the disastrous high-density housing mandates that are destroying our suburbs and neglecting our cities.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill: We have an affordability crisis in New Jersey. Working families cannot afford to live here, seniors can’t afford to retire, and our kids cannot afford to stay. My administration will make it easier to convert underused industrial properties into housing and transit-oriented development to lower rental and mortgage costs, invest in solar and nuclear energy to lower utility costs, and take on the PBM middlemen driving up prescription drug costs.
We leave too much talent on the table because access to opportunity is too often determined by ZIP code. I’ll help our students recover from pandemic learning loss with evidence-based tutoring and mental health programs. I’ll also expand pathways into the workforce by offering more registered apprenticeships, boosting access to affordable community college, and working closely with employers to expand job training programs.
And I’ll fight back as Donald Trump, supported by Jack Ciattarelli, imposes tariffs on New Jersey families and businesses that are raising prices.
What should be done to help small businesses in New Jersey? What steps are needed to attract and retain businesses?
Jack Ciattarelli: As a two-time successful small business owner and CPA, I know firsthand the challenges faced by our business community and the state’s entrepreneurs. As governor, my administration will celebrate and support these hardworking men and women, not continue to put roadblocks in their way as has been done for so many years. To that end, I will cut the state’s corporate business tax in half, reduce regulatory burdens, and bring back commerce and energy departments whose sole mission is to support our businesses in the state, and attract new ones. In the old days, businesses would look primarily at two things — taxes and regulations. Today, they look at four things: taxes, regulations, labor pool and energy. And to be quite candid, we’re failing in all four. It’s time for a change.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill: I will make it easier to start a business by directing the Business Action Center to take on a stronger role to support entrepreneurs and small business owners. Depending on your industry, you may need licenses or follow regulations across several agencies that you have probably never heard of. And sometimes you just need a quick answer, and you’re not sure who has it. I’ll build out a more robust Business Action Center to make this easier and save business owners time and money.
I will also streamline and increase transparency within the state agency approvals and permitting process to reduce costs and delays. Whether you are waiting on a license or permit, state agencies don’t provide real timelines and the uncertainty increases costs for business owners. In Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro has cut waiting times for new business licenses by 90% — and I’ll do the same in New Jersey.
How do you envision working with the accounting community to address solutions in the state? For example, the current administration established an economic council but did not implement it.
Jack Ciattarelli: Unlike the Murphy Administration, I won’t let important initiatives die on the vine. I will be a hands-on governor focused on improving the economy for working people and businesses.
That includes reforming state government to find inefficiencies, getting rid of outdated and ineffective offices and programs and returning taxpayer money to help fuel growth. I will create the NJ Department of Government Efficiency (NJDOGE) and put Lieutenant Governor Gannon in charge of it. NJDOGE will weed out redundancies and fraud in government through audits and investigations, for which the accounting community will be indispensable.
I will also create a new Commerce Department, not as another layer of government, but to better organize and streamline the state’s economic development programs. Accountants will help me consolidate and reshape them to be more effective and efficient.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill: The accounting community will have a seat at the table as I work to make New Jersey more affordable, support small business owners and attract business investment. Accountants have a key perspective on what it takes to start and run a business, and how the state can make it easier for small businesses to thrive. For example, the state’s application and approval processes for licensing and permitting take far too long and lack transparency, costing business owners time and money. As I mentioned before, I will invest in a more robust Business Action Center that is responsive to challenges raised by the business community and more supportive in navigating state government.
Do you think businesses and wealthy individuals should be paying more taxes to help fund state government?
Jack Ciattarelli: They already do pay more. Currently in New Jersey, under Phil Murphy and Democrats, people earning over $100,000 a year are responsible for 90% of the state’s income tax revenue, while our businesses pay the highest corporate tax in the country. Phil Murphy’s and the Trenton Democrats’ message to residents was clear when he said if you don’t like paying high taxes, you should leave. My priority will be to reduce taxes across the board, while also championing our business community so we can grow the economy and create more and better jobs. We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill: New Jersey families cannot afford higher taxes, and our business community is already paying the highest corporate tax rate in the nation. Our state faces serious budget challenges in the years ahead. I will increase state revenues by supporting policies that will grow the New Jersey economy and attract jobs and business investment. I will also find savings in the state budget through reforms to the State Health Benefits Program, like independent third-party auditing of claims. I will also increase tax enforcement by cracking down on ultra-wealthy and corporate tax cheats, which will generate revenue for the state while increasing efficiency and fairness in our economy.
New Jersey’s public employee pension system continues to face long-term funding challenges, despite recent full payments into the plan. As governor, what specific strategies would you pursue to ensure the pension system remains solvent?
Jack Ciattarelli: We need to honor the commitments made to our public employees and retirees, while simultaneously working with them and their union leadership to develop solutions that ensure long-term solvency.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill: I am committed to making full pension payments in every budget I sign. By making the actuarial recommended contribution, we will continue to make progress in improving the funded ratio of the pension system and ensure we keep our promises to our public workers. Full pension payments will continue to improve our credit rating, lower borrowing costs and maintain fiscal responsibility.
Over the last 10 years, New Jersey’s state budget has grown by more than 70%. What do you believe has driven this increase, and as governor, how would you ensure that future spending is sustainable?
Jack Ciattarelli: Quite simply, state government needs to live within its means, just like young families, seniors on fixed incomes and small businesses in our state do every day. A 70% increase in eight years far outpaces inflation and was financed on the backs of taxpayers paying more and with one-shot COVID monies that are now gone. Governor Murphy and the Democrats approach was terribly irresponsible. As governor, I will, if necessary, use the line-item veto to cut wasteful spending and conduct a spending audit across every department and agency in state government to bring our budget under control and ease the burden on taxpayers.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill: Ten years ago, our state was still short-changing the pension system by billions of dollars each year, our school funding formula was underfunded by over $1 billion, and there was little to no surplus to guard against an economic downturn. Our state budget has grown in large part because we are paying our bills and keeping our commitments. The state is also now providing record levels of property tax relief through programs like ANCHOR. Nonetheless, our structural deficit is unsustainable, and the costs of healthcare for public employees continue to drive spending upward. The premium increases for the State Health Benefits Program are unacceptable and must be addressed. As governor, I will bring stakeholders together to find significant savings on healthcare by implementing policies like independent, third-party auditing of claims.
Learn More
- Oct. 6, 4-5 p.m. Live Webcast
ISSUESWATCH LIVE: Q&A WITH JACK CIATTARELLI
Rep. Mikie Sherrill was also invited to participate in a live Q&A, but she was unavailable to attend. - Sept. 30, 7-8 p.m.
- LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR DEBATE
Watch on WPIX or WPHL - Oct. 8, 7-8 p.m.
GUBERNATORIAL DEBATE #2
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