Sponsored by:
Senator JAMES BEACH
District 6 (Burlington and Camden)
Senator MICHAEL L. TESTA, JR.
District 1 (Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland)
SYNOPSIS
Directs Secretary of State to contract with qualified vendor to develop national marketing campaign promoting State's innovation economy; appropriates $1,000,000.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As reported by the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee on March 24, 2022, with amendments.
An Act directing the Secretary of State to 1enter into a contract or agreement with a qualified vendor to1 develop a national marketing campaign to promote the State's innovation economy and supplementing chapter 16A of Title 52 of the Revised Statutes 1and making an appropriation1.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. The Secretary of State shall 1enter into a contract or agreement with a qualified vendor to1 develop and undertake a national marketing campaign to promote the State of New Jersey'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 marketing campaign shall include, but may 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; 1[and]1
(4) 1Promotion of the quality careers in manufacturing, a critical part of the innovation economy with many vacancies that have been hard to fill despite often having good wages and benefits while not always needing a college degree; and
(5)1 Any other element the Secretary of State deems appropriate.
b. The marketing campaign shall incorporate a range of media, including radio, television, print, and internet platforms. 1The qualified vendor shall 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.1
12. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of State the sum of $1,000,000 for the purposes described in section 1 of this act, P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), 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 the purpose of this act.1
1[2.] 3.1 This act shall take effect immediately.