NEW JERSEY VIETNAM VETERANS’ MEMORIAL FOUNDATION HONORS MILITARY SERVICE MEMBERS WITH VETERANS DAY CEREMONY

For Immediate Release:
11/4/16

Ceremony Special Guest and Keynote Speaker Steven Fulop, Mayor of Jersey City.

Holmdel, NJ (November 4, 2016) - The New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Foundation will host its annual Veterans Day Ceremony at 11 a.m. Friday, November 11 at the Memorial, 1 Memorial Lane, Holmdel, NJ. The event is open to the public, Veterans, and their families.

Organizations from throughout the State will lay wreaths as part of the ceremony honoring veterans.

Executive Director, Bill Linderman, announced Mayor Steven Fulop as the keynote speaker at this year’s ceremony, “The Foundation is pleased to have Mayor Fulop address our Veterans Day attendees. As a veteran of the Iraq War and a public servant, he’s got an important perspective and we’re looking forward to his message.”

Steven Michael Fulop was elected the 49th Mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey on May 14, 2013. He is routinely hailed as a ‘smart, progressive leader’, responsible for making Jersey City the first city in the state -- and the 6th in the country -- to ensure paid sick leave. Fulop is also credited with passing legislation that encourages small business development, public safety reform and promoting green building and diversity through practical, sustainable policy.

The son of Romanian immigrants, Steven grew up in a Jewish family living in Edison, New Jersey. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1999, and after graduation worked for Goldman Sachs in both their Chicago and Manhattan offices. Steven was working in lower Manhattan on the morning of September 11, 2001.

A few weeks after seeing the first plane strike the Twin Towers, Fulop took a leave from Goldman Sachs and joined the United States Marine Corps. He was deployed to Iraq in January 2003 and served as part of the 6th Engineer Support Battalion, completing his service in 2006 with the rank of Corporal.

After his service in Iraq, Steven returned to banking, earned his MBA and entered politics, serving on the Jersey City Council for eight years before being elected Mayor.

In Memory Program: Veterans from Across New Jersey Honored

Each year during the Veterans Day ceremony, five Veterans are inducted into the Foundation’s In-Memory Program, a special recognition that honors those who served and later died as a result of complications from their Tour. This year’s inductees include: Ralph C. DeJulia of Saddle Brook, Richard Hatem of Wall, Richard Tuttle of Elizabeth, Martin Vaccaro, Jr. of Allenhurst, and Robert Vecchio of Hillsborough.

About Veterans Day

There are approximately 20 million veterans living in the United States, men and women from every state and territory who served honorably in their nation’s armed forces. Veterans Day honors all veterans, whether living or deceased. Across the nation and in every community, it is an opportunity to give special thanks and show support for those who have defended and protected our nation, often at great personal sacrifice.

Initially established as Armistice Day, it commemorated the signing of the Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI. After the end of World War II and the Korean War, this national day of celebration was renamed Veterans Day by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Five Star General in the US Army, to honor American veterans of all wars. Veterans Day is always celebrated on the 11th day of November, and in 2001, Congress passed a resolution that designated the week of November 11 National Veterans Awareness Week.

About New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Foundation

The New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Foundation oversees the operation of the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial and Vietnam Era Museum and Educational Center. The Memorial is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Museum and Educational Center is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The Memorial is a fitting tribute to the valor displayed by New Jersey residents who never returned from Southeast Asia. It commemorates the courage shown by all who served and continue to serve in America’s Armed Forces. Its companion project, the Vietnam Era Museum & Educational Center, is a respected, national resource that presents factual and unbiased information about the Era.

The Memorial and the Museum and Educational Center attract visitors from across New Jersey, the US and from around the world. Compelling exhibits present a balanced perspective into the politics, personalities and the domestic and international policies that shaped -- and were shaped by -- this remarkable era in global history. School students, community groups, citizens from all walks of life, and especially veterans and their families, all are welcomed by a staff of dedicated professionals and volunteers working together to provide visitors with a moving and memorable experience.

For more information, visit www.njvvmf.org.

Saint Peter’s University To Host Port Authority Reform Panel February 23rd

Jersey City, N.J. – Saint Peter’s University  has announced that it will host a bipartisan, bi-state panel on reforming the Port Authority. The event, “How Should We Fix the Port Authority?,” will be held on Monday, February 23 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. in The Duncan Family Sky Room in the Mac Mahon Student Center. The panel will feature a number of key officials who will discuss how to reform the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey so that it is more responsive to the region’s needs.

The five panelists include New York State Assemblyman James Brennan, chair of the Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions; Thomas D. Carver ’58, former New Jersey commissioner of Labor Workforce and Development; New Jersey State Senator Bob Gordon of Bergen County, chair of the Senate Legislative Oversight Committee; New Jersey Assemblywoman Amy Handlin of Monmouth County, member of the Health and Senior Services as well as the Regulated Professions committees; and Martin Robins, director emeritus of the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University.

Each member of the panel has in-depth experience relevant to the transportation industry in the tri-state area. In particular, Carver previously served as the assistant general manager of Newark Liberty International Airport, Gordon sponsored the Senate bill to reform Port Authority, Handlin sponsored the reform legislation in the General Assembly, and Robins previously served as director of the Port Authority’s Planning and Development Department and as deputy executive director of New Jersey Transit.

“Saint Peter’s is bringing together the key players from both sides of the Hudson River to help us solve a regional problem and take advantage of new opportunities,” said Philip Mark Plotch, Ph.D., director of the master’s program in public administration at Saint Peter’s University and author of the forthcoming book Politics Across the Hudson: The Tappan Zee Megaproject. “We are acutely aware of the Port Authority’s importance in Jersey City given our proximity to many of its bridges, airports, seaports, tunnels, PATH trains and World Trade Center.”

The Port Authority affects every business and resident in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area because it builds, operates and maintains a vast network of aviation, rail, surface transportation and seaport facilities. In 2014, both the New Jersey and New York legislatures unanimously passed legislation to reform the Port Authority. However, this legislation was vetoed in December 2014 by both Governor Andrew Cuomo and Governor Chris Christie. Although the New York State and New Jersey legislatures have not overturned a veto in a decade, they are now both considering overturning legislation to reform the Port Authority....

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As A Matter Of Fact...New Jersey Offers Goya $80 Million to Create Nine New Jobs

October 24th, 2011 | Published in NJPP Blog: As a Matter of Fact …

Imagine you are a New Jersey job seeker (one of 418,000 unemployed in the state as of September, 2011, according to the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development) and you read in the news that a firm will be getting a state subsidy to hire 175 new workers. You would be thrilled to see those new job opportunities in the state, right?

But, in the case of Goya Foods, Inc., only nine truly new jobs are being created.

Nine.

Of the other 166 “new” workers, 66 would be moved from Goya’s location in Bethpage, New York and 100 already work for Goya as contractors based in Secaucus, according to documents from the state Economic Development Authority (EDA). So these “new” workers are actually existing employees.

Those 100 current contractors may be counted as new workers because they will be converted to direct payroll employees or become part of a professional employer organization (PEO). The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations describes PEOs as enabling “clients to cost-effectively outsource the management of human resources, employment benefits, payroll and workers’ compensation.” Counting current workers as new workers might be technically correct under the subsidy law — but it just doesn’t make sense.

The state’s tax subsidy for these nine new workers is being offered under the newly revised Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit (UTHTC) statute. It is intended to provide an incentive to a firm by lowering its state corporate business tax obligation so that a company will make capital investments in buildings in urban areas near transit and create jobs.

Earlier this month, the EDA approved the $80 million-plus UTHTC for Goya Foods. The company would get that tax credit for building a new 600,000 square foot headquarters/distribution center in Jersey City, a half-mile from the Jersey City PATH station. Aside from the 175 “new” workers, 316 current Goya workers would move to the new facility from Secaucus. Goya’s current headquarters in Secaucus would be converted to a manufacturing facility and 53 jobs would be moved there from elsewhere in Secaucus, but would not be part of the $80 million subsidy.

Further, Goya is to benefit from the expansion of one of the state’s Urban Enterprise Zones to include the part of Jersey City where Goya plans to relocate, according to the Jersey Journal. Urban Enterprise Zones offer companies a host of tax benefits. The company is also seeking a 20-year property tax abatement for its new headquarters/distribution facility in Jersey City, which would lower the firm’s property tax bills; the Jersey City Council will vote to introduce the measure this week, with final approval to possibly come in the second week of November.

But that all may not be enough to keep Goya in New Jersey, according to EDA documents.

New Jersey is competing with New York state, because Goya is also considering moving North Jersey workers to an 892,943 square foot site in Suffern, New York, in Rockland County. No public information was provided by the EDA about the subsidies that may have been offered by the state of New York to woo Goya.