Trenton – Senate President Steve Sweeney today touted the progress that South Jersey has made as a region, and pledged to continue to work in a bipartisan manner to make the state affordable and prosperous in the years ahead.

“Our economic prosperity and competitiveness as a region and as a state will be based on our ability to make it affordable for our families to live here, for our kids to go to college here, for our seniors to retire here, and for our businesses to thrive and grow,” Senator Sweeney (D-Gloucester/Salem/Cumberland) said in his annual December end-of-year address to the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey.

Senator Sweeney pledged that affordability would be the focus of the public policy institute he is planning to launch. “We’re going to bring together the best experts and put together a bipartisan board to work on solutions that can be embraced by Democrats and Republicans alike,” Senator Sweeney said. “They can’t fix Washington, but together we can fix New Jersey.”

Senator Sweeney thanked Christina Renna, President and CEO of the Chamber, the more than 100 business, academic, healthcare and labor leaders at the luncheon in Mount Laurel for working with him. “Look around South Jersey, and you will see the results of what we have achieved working together.”

He praised the rapid growth of Rowan University and Stockton University as economic drivers in the region. “Lockheed Martin is here because they can hire 200 engineers a year from Rowan. If we didn’t have this university, we wouldn’t have Lockheed Martin,” he asserted. He lauded Stockton’s decision to open an Atlantic City campus as critical to the city’s redevelopment.

Senator Sweeney said a diversified energy portfolio – nuclear, natural gas and offshore wind — is critical to holding down energy costs and creating jobs. He noted that he fought Orsted to bring manufacturing jobs to the Paulsboro port, and noted that the new Windport in Lower Alloways Creek is so successful that “six international companies have put in for lease space on what was 200 acres of dredge spoils.”

“We have a lot of work to do to make South Jersey and the entire state the affordable, competitive and prosperous place to raise a family we all know it can be,” Senator Sweeney said. “I am not going away. I promise you that I will be just as forceful voice for the changes we still need to make to achieve our dream.”

The CCSNJ is the region’s largest, most active, and influential business organization, representing Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem counties.