Friday Facts and Figures is a brief digital newsletter focusing on data points from NJPP reports, research, and policy debates in New Jersey and beyond.
Sign up here.
11
While 2019 is an “off-year election,” county sheriffs are on the ballot in eleven of New Jersey’s 21 counties. These elections will determine local immigration enforcement, cooperation with federal authorities (ICE), jail conditions, and broader law enforcement measures. NJPP’s Erika Nava explains to The Appeal that even with a new Attorney General directive limiting cooperation with ICE, it’s up to individual sheriffs to implement guidelines and train their staff to comply with it — and that doesn’t always happen. [The Appeal / Daniel Nichanian]
605,000
Immigration policy impacts more than just immigrants, as 605,000 New Jersey residents live in a household with at least one undocumented family member. This number includes 205,000 US-born children. That’s why policies that allow immigrants to thrive, like expanding access to driver’s licenses, also benefit their family members and the broader economy. Driver’s license expansion, which has stalled in the Legislature, would make New Jersey roads safer, its families more independent, and the economy stronger. [NJ.com / Patricia Campos-Medina]
$35,308
A new proposal by the Trump administration will take away overtime protections for millions of salaried American workers. Currently, salaried employees with managerial duties are excluded from the right to earn overtime if they make over a certain threshold. President Obama raised the threshold to $47,476 a year and phased it up to $55,000 in 2023. Now, the Trump administration wants to roll back the threshold to $35,308 a year. In New Jersey, this will result in 285,000 workers losing the right to overtime pay. [NJ.com / Craig Garcia]
60
The number of Fortune 500 companies paying no federal income tax doubled from 30 in 2017 to 60 in 2018. These 60 companies, earning a collective $79 billion, received a net tax rebate of $4.3 billion, meaning many actually received money back from the federal government. This is a result of corporate tax changes in the 2017 federal tax cut package. Companies with a negative tax obligation include Netflix, Amazon, Chevron, Gannett, Halliburton, and Prudential. [Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy / Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff, et al.]
0
Earlier this week, NJPP joined dozens of community groups and advocacy organizations to demand the resignation of the Economic Development Authority’s board. Under the leadership of the current board, the EDA gave subsidies to corporations that did not deserve them, either because the companies had no intention of leaving the state or because they never fulfilled their promises to create new jobs. So far, zero board members have resigned. [NJ.com / Ted Sherman]
ICYMI
Kathryn Edin, one of the nation’s leading poverty researchers, will be the keynote speaker at Progress 2019: New Jersey on the National Stage. Edin is a Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University and author of $2.00 a Day, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year about people living in extreme poverty in the richest nation in the world. Use the link to read more about Edin and to purchase your tickets for NJPP’s biggest event of the year! [NJPP / Brandon McKoy]
Have a fact or figure for us? Tweet it to @NJPolicy.
