TRENTON-Gov. Chris Christie is creating a nonprofit corporation that he hopes will help invigorate New Jersey's business community, which he said has shrunk after a decade of bad policies. The privately funded initiative, called Choose New Jersey, is described as an aggressive marketing campaign and will work in tandem with the office of Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

"The forces of government in Trenton have not understood the great basic principle that we need to get out of your way and let you create economic growth and vitality," said Christie at a meeting of the New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Co. Verizon New Jersey president Dennis Bone was named Choose New Jersey's interim chairman by its governing board of more than 15 business leaders.

Lawmakers recently learned that income tax collections--the state's largest revenue source--were off by roughly $300 million from projections earlier this year, with the state's loss of businesses to other locales cited by experts as one of the causes. The initiative also follows a report by Guadagno outlining rules and regulations that companies must satisfy to do business in New Jersey. The 65-page report recommends policy changes to make the state more business-friendly. Christie could implement some of them by executive order; others require legislative approval.

In a statement, Sen. Steve Oroho (R) commended Governor Christie on establishing the nonprofit. “Over the past 10 years New Jersey has established a reputation for being one of the most anti-business states in the country," he said. "Our penchant for raising taxes, increasing debt and enacting unnecessary regulations have forced many businesses to close down or leave the state and cost many people their jobs. The Choose New Jersey program represents a great opportunity to reverse this poor image among the business community and bring much-needed jobs back to the Garden State." NAIOP New Jersey is also throwing its weight behind the initiative, noting that New Jersey has long had an image of being unfriendly to business, and the Christie administration's initiative, in collaboration with the corporate community, is an effort to change that image with the long-term economic success of New Jersey at stake.

But critics say the proposed changes could erode residents' rights to public notice and comment. And environmental groups have expressed concerns that a spur in development could harm New Jersey's environment.

This newest effort comes on the heels of the Time of Application bill, which Gov. Christie _{signed into law last month}. While municipalities largely denounced the bill, developers have cheered the move, which bars towns from changing zoning ordinances prior to a land use board’s final decision. "The legislation does not guarantee approval of a land use application, but instead allows for the application process to move forward without the unnecessary hurdle of constantly changing requirements while the application is pending," said NAIOP NJ's CEO, Michael McGuinness, in an earlier interview.

McGuinness also tells GlobeSt.com that the port area needs work; in particular, the Bayonne Bridge, which is too low to accommodate the colossal container ships that are expected to be pulling into East Coast ports when the Panama Canal is completed in 2015. McGuinness reveals that he recently met with Lt. Gov. Guadagno, who said that a resolution must come immediately. Unfortunately, nobody seems to know what that solution is. Meanwhile, recession-related declines in Port Authority revenues have curbed the bi-state agency’s ability to finance big projects on its own, raising doubts as to where the Bayonne Bridge money might come from, and when the project will be able to move forward. Even so, McGuinness says that we need to at least let the shipping and export industries know that "we are going to get our act together. Because these shipping companies are already investing and making 10- to-15-year decisions about where to bring in cargo and buy up land."