Governor Jon Corzine
Advocate for the Building Trades

What Governor Jon Corzine has accomplished in his first term for working families of New Jersey

Fighting For Working Families

• Governor Corzine enacted Family Leave Insurance so that working families can care for sick family members and newborn children
• Expanded the earned income tax credit for 300,000 families

Protecting Middle-Class Jobs

• Signed legislation guaranteeing prompt pay by owners to prime contractors.
• Stopping the misclassification of employees as independent contractors.
• Enforcing the prevailing wage law; expanded scope to include public utility contractors.
• Signed legislation to make it more difficult for debarred contractors to continue operating.

Created and Kept Jobs in New Jersey

• Created INVEST NJ, the first-in-the-nation program to help NJ businesses address current fiscal challenges.
• $3,000 for each new job, expected to create 16,666 new private sector jobs in 2 years; and, provided $70 million in grants to offset sales tax on capital investment for business operations
• Invested in Public Sector Infrastructure
• Expedited public works projects which will result in more than 10,000 new jobs.
• Championed the construction of the Mass Transit Tunnel between NJ and Manhattan. The Tunnel will create 6,000 construction jobs each year over the life of the project, and generate 44,000 permanent jobs upon completion.
• State investment in clean energy technologies and energy efficiency programs estimated to result in more than 20,000 new jobs by 2020

Protecting Unemployment Assistance

• Stopped raids on the Unemployment Insurance (UI) trust fund and replenished losses from earlier raids, including $380 million in state General Fund contributions to the fund.
• First in the nation to receive a bonus from the federal government for states with modernized Unemployment Insurance programs from President Obama's stimulus plan, resulting in a $207 million federal deposit into NJ's state UI fund.

Supporting Job Training/ Apprenticeship Programs & College Education

• Investing in Green Jobs & Energy Infrastructure. Trained 1,950 NJ workers since 2006.
• Achieved agreement from all of NJ's community colleges to provide more than 30 college credits for apprenticeships, recognizing their rigorous educational value.
• Increased representation through new recruitment and mentoring programs.

Strengthening Workers' Compensation

• Signed series of legislation to further protect vulnerable workers injured on the job.