The Urban Enterprise Zone is a State of New Jersey program that was established for a limited number of cities in 1983. In Passaic the UEZ program began in August of ’94. The program has been expanded a number of times whereas it now covers 34 NJ cities. The UEZ provides qualified businesses in designated zones certain state tax benefits as detailed herein. The program also provides a revenue source for the cities containing the UEZ’s. The revenues can be used by the cities for a variety of locally initiated programs to further help the UEZ businesses. Passaic currently receives about $1.2 million per year in these revenues.
The municipal UEZ is administered by a special entity set up specially for that purpose. In Passaic, the UEZ is administered by the Passaic Enterprise Zone Development Corporation.