With inflation continuing to heat up dramatically the Federal Reserve is expected to approve the first of many interest rate increases next week. Rutgers University economist James Hughes said no one is sure whether we’ll see an increase of a quarter percent, a half...
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Murphy’s property-tax rebate proposal adds renters
Last week Gov. Murphy announced a property-tax relief program that could benefit renters. Senior policy fellow Marc Pfeiffer explains that the funding is coming from income tax and directly benefits people paying those taxes (segment starts at 6:40) NJ Spotlight News,...
Land value tax helps realize the Richmond 300 vision
Since the 1990s, Richmond’s story largely has been one of success. Spurred and supported by the expansion of the Mid-Atlantic Interstate 95 corridor, the city saw employment increase, population loss reverse and median incomes increase from $24,000 in 1990 to $54,000...
Living with COVID: How the pandemic transformed the workplace in NJ
“The pandemic has really transformed work. It’s transformed lifestyles. It’s transformed how we basically live,” says Rutgers University Professor James Hughes, dean emeritus of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. COVID-19 sparked the Great...
Commentary: The ‘Ed Scare’ takes hold in America
The value of books has been recorded thousands upon thousands of times. Books have espoused freedom and widened horizons, prompted dreams and helped imagine futures. They have mitigated despair and offered hope, relayed history, answered questions and raised more. And...
N.J. immigrant relief program about to end just as it’s gaining steam. Insiders doubt it will be revived.
Although New Jersey is typically a reliably blue state politically, legislature leaders have been cautiously moderate on many progressive issues, said Associate Rutgers University Professor Julia Sass Rubin, director of the Policy Program at the Edward J Bloustein...
Empty Spaces: With Office Work Changed Forever Due to COVID-19, Office Parks Will Change, Too
The pandemic has altered the workplace dynamic, and experts say the North Jersey landscape built on officeparks is about to change forever. "In the Northeast, the five-day-a-week in-office is history," said Jim Hughes, a Rutgers professor and dean...
In both New Jersey and Soviet Russia, democracy requires a choice of candidates
As a child in Soviet Russia, I distinctly remember my mom voting. Like most Russians, she never missed an election — all adult citizens were expected to vote and failing to do so could have substantial economic and political repercussions. Although rates of voting...
Ten years in NJ property taxes: Rising, but kept (somewhat) in check
To be sure, much has happened in New Jersey since the 2% cap was enacted, and it’s hard to fully attribute the slowed growth to just one thing. In addition to enacting the 2% cap on levy increases, and the similar restriction on police officer and firefighter pay...
Shooting Calls to NBPD Increased Sharply in 2021, Data Analysis Shows
Since January 2020, the NBPD received a total of 205 calls reporting shots fired or shot heard in the area. The number of calls reporting shots fired or shots heard in the area was 61 through mid-November 2020, while there were 122 such incidents during the same time...