N.J. rethinking incentives in MSNBC move

TRENTON - New Jersey gave, and MSNBC took - and then ran away.

Now MSNBC's move out of New Jersey is causing Garden State officials to reconsider the incentives given to businesses to keep them in the state.

Ideas include forcing companies to refund money and tax breaks if they don't uphold deals to create jobs and stay in the state. State Sen. Shirley Turner said the state's business incentive program needed to ensure companies fulfill agreements. "If we keep giving without getting back, our investment strategy will become another bad joke about New Jersey," said Turner, a Mercer County Democrat.

Turner's bill to force refunds from companies that don't fulfill job-creation and longevity promises was approved by the Senate last year and awaits Assembly action. MSNBC in October announced that it was closing its Secaucus facility after 10 years and moving studios to Manhattan's Rockefeller Center. New Jersey had given it about $7.8 million in grants to come and stay at least 15 years.

The company was one of the first to participate in New Jersey's Business Employment Incentive Program, designed to help businesses either expand or relocate to New Jersey to create jobs.

Under the program, New Jersey paid MSNBC grants equal to 80 percent of the state income taxes paid by its Garden State employees. It also forgave state sales taxes on equipment purchased for the Secaucus site. Under a settlement between MSNBC and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, the state will reduce by $2.3 million future business grants to the Englewood Cliffs facility of CNBC, another NBC cable property.