The legislation amends provisions to allow UEZ companies with annual gross receipts of up to $10 million to get the immediate sales tax exemption. Presently, only UEZ businesses with annual gross receipts of less than $3 million are exempt from sales tax at the point of purchase. Larger UEZ companies have to pay the sales tax, then file for a rebate.

“In this tough economic environment, small businesses need the ability to invest in their future prosperity,” Corzine said. “This move provides a targeted boost that will encourage growth in our urban economies during a deep recession.”

The measure, first proposed by Corzine in October, is a facet of the governor’s plan to stimulate the economy.

There are 32 Urban Enterprise Zones in 37 municipalities throughout the state.

New Jersey’s jobless rate is the highest since August 1996.

During the first 11 months of 2008, New Jersey lost 34,400 jobs; the nation lost 1.9 million. Nearly all the November job losses in New Jersey were in the private sector — 5,700 jobs — while government shed 500 positions.

“The November data underscore how deeply the national recession is hitting our labor market,” Labor Commissioner David J. Socolow said. He said Gov. Jon S. Corzine has taken several actions to boost the economy, including foreclosure relief and the investment of $500 million in state money into New Jersey banks to help them make more loans to New Jersey businesses.

Professional and business services lost 1,900 jobs in November, the largest sector loss last month. Manufacturing shed 1,600 jobs. Only education and health, with a gain of 300 jobs, saw any gains.

Late Tuesday night, Lakeland Bancorp said it received preliminary approval to sell up to $59 million of nonvoting Lakeland senior preferred stock to Treasury.

Participating banks must agree to restrict executive compensation and adhere to other requirements. Treasury does not disclose names of banks that sign up for TARP, but the institutions are free to disclose their enrollment.

Lakeland, like other institutions that signed up for TARP, says it is well-capitalized, but applied to the program because it offers “very attractive, low-cost capital,” Thomas Shara, Lakeland''s chief executive officer, said in an announcement.

The roster of New Jersey financial institutions participating in TARP includes Clinton-based Unity Bancorp, which issued $20.6 million of TARP stock; Wayne-based Valley National Bancorp, which sold a $300 million stake under TARP; and Pamrapo Bancorp Inc., a Bayonne-based bank that hopes to issue up to $11.4 million of preferred stock to the federal government. Gladstone-based Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corp. (NasdaqGS: PGC) plans to sell $28.7 million of preferred stock to the U.S. Treasury, and a Vineland-based institution, Sun Bancorp Inc., hopes to sell between $30 million and $89 million of stock to the Treasury.

Lakeland (NasdaqGS: LBAI) stock opened today at $10.61, down from $10.85 at Tuesday''s close. Unity (NasdaqGM: UNTY) closed Tuesday at $4.15 a share. Valley National (NYSE: VLY), opened at $17.74 a share today, down from $17.95 at yesterday’s close. Pamrapo (Nasdaq: PBCI) opened today at $8.00, down from $7.91 at Tuesday''s close. Peapack-Gladstone Financial (NasdaqGS: PGC) opened today at $28.86, down from $29.04 at Tuesday''s close. Sun (NasdaqGS: SNBC) opened today at $7.34, down from $7.50 at Tuesday''s close.

“Pharmaceutical companies continue to substantially outpace all other industry categories,” said Cavicchio, a senior research associate at The Conference Board’s Center for Corporate Citizenship & Sustainability who led the survey.

Pharmaceutical companies made the largest overall U.S. contributions (cash and non-cash), at $3.84 billion, the survey found. For pharmaceutical companies, the median ratio of contributions to consolidated pretax income was 6.61 percent, compared to the overall 0.76 percent, the Conference Board added.

Banks were the largest U.S. cash contributors, at $714.09 million, while pharmaceuticals led the industry categories as the largest non-cash givers with $3.23 billion, it added. The major beneficiary categories included health and human services, education, and arts and culture.

Cavicchio said almost all the companies surveyed predicted no change in their 2008 corporate contributions, and that none expected a decline, sentiments they reiterated in a September 2008 survey she conducted. She said she is, however, holding back releasing the September survey results because of the dramatic changes in the economic environment since then.

“Also, anecdotally, I am hearing that some of them have had to cut back contributions and are laying off people in their corporate contributions departments,” Cavicchio said. She said she plans to re-run her survey in January and hopefully release its findings later than month.

But Goldman said Gov. Jon S. Corzine is committing millions of dollars to a slate of programs aimed at halting foreclosure proceedings and keeping families in their homes, and said the incoming Obama administration will do even more to stem the foreclosure tide.

New Jersey is not one of the nation’s foreclosure hot spots — a distinction awarded to Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada — so even though “it’s worse than we’d like,” Goldman said, the recession may not be as devastating here as elsewhere.

“Look, we have a lot of things going for us here in New Jersey,” Goldman said. “We have a diverse economy, we’re a well-to-do state. But we’re going to be affected. So whether we’re as badly affected as other places or not — and I think we will not be — we will be affected.”

Goldman had praise for the state’s community banks — many of whom say they are planning to increase commercial lending, even during the recession. “While these other institutions were giving away these loans without checking credit, so anyone could walk in and get a loan, these people were maintaining decent underwriting standards,” he said. “They still wanted to get to know their customers and make sure they could pay them back. Well, now that the world has returned to a saner standard, and some of the larger financial institutions are in financial difficulty, they are still well-capitalized, still maintaining good underwriting standards, and they can participate in the lending market in a much more meaningful way than before.”

Asked if there might be bank failures ahead in New Jersey, Goldman said, “Anything is possible, so I will never say never — but we’re hopeful not. We have some very few banks that have some problems, and we’re working with them.” Any failures here, Goldman said, “would certainly not be on any kind of a large scale.”

The mortgage lending conference was presented by the Mortgage Bankers Association of New Jersey, the New Jersey Bankers Association and the New Jersey League of Community Bankers.

Speakers included Robert R. Davis, executive vice president of the American Bankers Association; Patrick Lawler, chief economist of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight; Goldman; Michael Horn, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank of N.Y.; E. Robert Levy, executive director of the Mortgage Bankers Association of New Jersey; Mary Kay Roberts, partner in the law firm Riker Danzig; Jeffrey Otteau, a real estate expert at Otteau Valuations; Jim DeGeronimo Sr. president of Majestic Security; Oberta Janel, managing director of J.H. Cohn Professional Mortgage Consultants; and Werner Jasinski, vice president of Security Atlantic Mortgage.

Today’s announcement did not disclose the dollar amount of the outstanding notes, but in May 1999, the company offered $300 million of senior notes, due 2009, that carried a coupon of 6.95 percent per year.

Based in the Bergen County borough, Sealed Air makes Bubble Wrap cushioning, Jiffy protective mailers, and other packaging and equipment systems for the food, industrial, medical and consumer markets.

Sealed Air stock opened today at $14.94, up slightly from $14.93 a share at Tuesday's close.

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