Bill > S1243

Introduced Session

This bill requires the Secretary of State to enter into a contract or agreement with a qualified vendor to develop and undertake a national marketing campaign to promote the State's assets as an innovation economy, to attract people, businesses, entrepreneurs, and investors in other states, and to both promote and increase the State's high-technology and high-skilled workforce. The bill requires the qualified vendor to be a private nonprofit organization qualified for exemption from federal taxation pursuant to 26 U.S.C. s.501(c)(3) and that supports business relocation to, and entrepreneurship in, the State. The marketing campaign would include, but would not be limited to, the following elements: (1) a branding strategy to publicize the State's assets and to strengthen the State's innovation economy brand; (2) promotion of the State's employment opportunities in the high-technology and high-skilled sectors of the economy, the well-paying wages in those sectors, as well as the infrastructural, workforce, investment, and other assets that make it ideal for people, businesses, entrepreneurs, and investors to locate and grow their business in New Jersey; (3) targeted marketing to specific populations, including out-of-state businesses, entrepreneurs, investors, recent college and graduate school graduates, young professionals, and other persons interested in starting a high-technology business or bringing a research idea to commercialization; (4) promotion of the quality careers in manufacturing, a critical part of the innovation economy; and (5) any other element the Secretary of State deems appropriate. The marketing campaign would incorporate radio, television, print, and internet media platforms. The bill appropriates from the General Fund to the Department of State the sum of $1,000,000 and such sums as the State Treasurer and the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting in the Department of the Treasury deem necessary to effectuate its provisions.

Committee Categories

Jim Beach (D)*,  Mike Testa (R)*,  Linda Greenstein (D),  Shirley Turner (D),  Andrew Zwicker (D), 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document