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New Jersey Resources Corporation Business Information, Profile, and History

1415 Wyckoff Road
Wall, New Jersey 07719
U.S.A.

Company Perspectives:

We, the employees and leaders of NJR, are committed to meeting our customers' energy needs for value, comfort and convenience.

History of New Jersey Resources Corporation

New Jersey Resources Corporation (NJR) is a holding company, whose primary subsidiary is New Jersey Natural Gas Company, provider of energy services to more than 425,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in central and northern New Jersey. In addition, NJR is involved through its NJR Energy Services Company in unregulated activities, such as gas supply, pipeline capacity, and storage management in New Jersey as well as a number of other states. Another subsidiary, NJR Home Services Company, repairs and services such household appliances as air conditioners, gas furnaces, hot water heaters, dryers, outdoor lights, and grills. NJR Power Services Company is involved in the distribution of emerging energy technologies such as fuel cells and microturbines.

Forming County Gas in 1922

The history of NJR started with a small utility called County Gas Company, located in Highlands, New Jersey, founded in 1922. At this time in the United States gas was still distributed by a multitude of small operations like County Gas, manufacturing their own product in local plants. Typically, gas was made by reducing coal to coke in a retort house, then piped to another facility where it was purified by lime. The gas was then piped to an immense tank called a gasholder or "gasometer." This method of providing commercial gas would remain essentially unchanged until the 1930s and the advent of natural gas, which is found like other petroleum products trapped within the earth's strata. Although used for centuries, natural gas was not a widely available energy source until the improvement of pipeline technology.

In 1929 County Gas was acquired by a large holding company, Public Service Corporation of New Jersey, and operated as part of its system until the years following World War II. At that time, the Securities and Exchange Commission pressured Public Service, involved in both the gas and electric businesses, to comply with the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935. Attorney Sidney M. Schreiber was quick to realize that County Gas would have to be divested, and he sought investors in order to buy the business. After being turned down by a Chicago investor, he enlisted James S. Abrams of a New York Investment firm, Allen & Co., who in turn recruited a colleague, Irving Koerner. Abrams also brought in two Chicago investors, Kenneth D. Knoblock and Frank O'Neill. The four men then contributed $10,000 each and borrowed $160,000 to purchase County Gas from Public Service for $200,000, the deal closing in 1948. In order to supply working capital Abrams personally borrowed an additional $60,000.

Abrams became the chairman of the board of County Gas, and Knoblock, a trained engineer who had worked in the gas industry in Wisconsin, was named the president. Because Knoblock knew that natural gas would quickly supersede "town gas" he took immediate steps to convert the company to the new system. Over the next decade, in fact, natural gas provided by wells in the southwestern United States began to be distributed throughout the country by thousands of miles of pipeline, making gas a popular choice for heating and cooking in the new housing developments that sprang up during the boom years of the postwar era. County Gas not only benefited from good economic times, it also took advantage of another holding company's legal need to divest its gas business, and as a result grew five times in size overnight. General Public Utilities, in the cross hairs of the SEC, decided to focus on the electricity business and put Jersey Central Power & Light on the block. County Gas had but 14,600 customers in an area roughly 90 square miles in size, compared with Jersey Central's 73,000 gas customers and territory of 950 square miles. Nevertheless, the small utility, in October 1951, was able to submit a successful bid of approximately $16 million to acquire Jersey Central's gas assets.

Name Change in 1952: New Jersey Natural Gas Company

Because County Gas had greatly increased the portion of New Jersey it served, management decided in 1952 to change the company's name to New Jersey Natural Gas Company (NJNG). To fund the acquisition of Jersey Central's gas properties, pay down debt, and sustain the ongoing conversion to natural gas, NJNG then made an initial public offering of stock, as well as mortgage bonds and serial notes to institutional investors. The company raised nearly $5 million through the sale of common stock and $14.5 million from bonds and notes. By the end of 1953 NJNG completed the conversion to natural gas and the manufacturing facilities of the "town gas" era were closed down. Also in that year Knoblock was replaced as president by Dale B. Otto, who over the next dozen years oversaw the company's continued growth, which mirrored the postwar growth of the Jersey Shore counties of Cape May, Monmouth, and Ocean, and was further spurred by the rising popularity of gas appliances. In 1956 NJNG topped $1 million in net income for the first time. By 1962, with nearly 150,000 customers, it reached the $2 million mark.

In 1965 Otto stepped down as president in favor of W. Daniel Williams, who had been an executive with the company since 1952. It was during Williams's tenure that NJNG faced the problem of a supply shortage. Although the company continued to add residential customers it could no longer add new large-volume customers. To meet this challenging situation, NJNG became one of the first utilities in the country to turn to liquid propane and liquefied natural gas. Nonetheless, the natural gas shortage grew so severe that in 1971 the company ceased to take on new residential customers and eliminated its sales department. As the fuel shortage continued NJNG had to restrict service to existing customers, denying the installation of new appliances and requesting that outdoor gaslights and swimming pool heaters not be used. On the supply side, the company invested in new LP plants, then in 1975 established an exploration and production subsidiary, New Jersey Natural Resources Company, to find new supplies of natural gas. Over the next couple of years the unit invested nearly $7.5 million in the effort.

Williams was replaced as president by James T. Dolan in January 1978, the same year that NJNG was able for the first time in seven years to add new customers and reinstate its marketing operation. The company enjoyed a record year, for the first time topping $100 million in annual revenues. Its exploration activities also were beginning to succeed when in 1978 its subsidiary discovered natural gas. In short order NJNG had interests in 57 wells located in New York, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. Moreover, the company sought to supplement its supply of natural gas by looking northward to Canada, becoming involved with several other distribution companies in the formation of Boundary Gas Inc. to import Canadian natural gas. To take advantage of natural gas as it became available through its various supply channels, NJNG also invested heavily to increase its storage capacity.

Involved in a variety of ventures, NJNG reorganized in early 1982. New Jersey Resources Corporation was formed as a holding company to accommodate NJNG and the businesses that grew out of it. With a market capitalization of $43 million NJR was subsequently listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company made a minor adjustment a year later when it sold its operations in the southern part of the state to South Jersey Gas Company, due to the high cost of necessary upgrades. Instead, NJR used the proceeds of the sale to invest in its core territories. Later in the year, the company became the target of a hostile takeover attempt when NUI Corporation, owners of Elizabeth Gas, attempted to convince shareholders to elect a slate of directors friendly to a merger. The two companies became tied up in litigation and the matter lingered for nearly two years. In 1985 NJR shareholders rejected the NUI bid and the parties settled their legal differences, with NJR in the end agreeing to purchase the shares owned by NUI.

In the meantime, NJR continued to grow, bolstered by increasing supplies of natural gas. The first deliveries of Canadian gas through the Boundary agreement arrived in November 1984. In addition, other suppliers began to offer natural gas to Boundary participants and NJR secured delivery by reaching agreements with all four of the interstate pipelines that served New Jersey, becoming the only utility in the state to hold that distinction. Able to support strong growth, the company added 14,675 new customers in 1986 and now boasted 250,000 total customers. Two years later NJR topped the 300,000 mark.

Retirement of Longtime Chairman in 1987

NJR's ties to its founders, however, were beginning to fray. In 1987, after serving some 40 years as the chairman of the board of County Gas, NJNG, and later NJR, James Abrams retired, replaced by Dolan. In 1991 Abrams passed away at the age of 81, and in that same year another founder, Irving Koerner, died at the age of 84. A total of 40 years had passed since tiny County Gas had acquired the Jersey Central gas assets and became New Jersey Natural Gas Company. The company owed its existence to strict regulation that forced large holding companies to divest some of their interests, and now it faced a future in which continued growth was very much dependent on how it adjusted to a deregulated business environment. In the 1990s the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a number of orders that led to greater competition in the gas industry, including Order 636 in 1992, which forced pipelines to become little more than shippers of gas, rather than sellers and distributors as well. NJR sought to take advantage of this situation by selling natural gas and unused pipeline capacity outside of its New Jersey territory, so-called off-system sales. Not only did the company make money, it was able to buy natural gas in greater quantities, which resulted in lower prices for its New Jersey customers.

In 1995, with the naming of 37-year-old Laurence M. Downes as president and chief executive officer, NJR began taking further steps to adjust to a market-driven, highly competitive business environment created by deregulation. Downes had been with the company since 1985 and risen to the rank of chief financial officer. He believed that in order to better compete NJR needed to focus on its core natural gas distribution business, sell off peripheral assets, and pay down debt on the remaining assets. He soon divested NJR of its real estate assets, followed by the sale of oil and natural gas assets. All told, the company raised more than $135 million by selling off noncore assets. A much slimmer company, NJR was able within two years to post record levels of revenues, in 1997 posting $697 million in sales, as well as $39.9 million in net income. The success of Downes's strategy was also reflected in the price of NJR's stock, which was valued at $22 when Downes took office but by the end of October 1997 was nearly $33.

NJR under Downes's leadership also proved to be a forward-looking company. In 1998, it became the first New Jersey utility to voluntarily offer its customers a choice of their natural gas suppliers. In that same year, NJR teamed up with NJ Transit to service the state's mass transit needs with buses running on compressed natural gas, a much cleaner technology than gasoline or diesel-powered engines. In 1999 NJR and a subsidiary of General Electric agreed to market fuel cell technology to NJR's residential and small business customers, becoming the exclusive distributor of GE's MicroGen unit. Fuel cells allowed homeowners to produce their own electricity by running a natural gas-fired power plant using a microturbine housed in a cabinet the size of a refrigerator. Labeled "distributed generation," electricity produced by fuel cells and other technologies allowed homeowners to not only supply much of their own power needs but to realize further savings by selling excess generation back to their local power company. Distributed generation offered great promise and, according to Downes during a U.S. Senate hearing in 2000, it had "the potential to change the electric industry in much the same way as PCs changed the computer business." Moreover, microturbines released only carbon dioxide and water as waste materials, and their increased use would lessen the need for larger and less environmentally friendly power plants. Downes further told the Senators that every homeowner using a microturbine would be the environmental equivalent of removing two automobiles from the road. The use of fuel cells, of course, also would greatly enhance NJR's business, because customers running such units would essentially double their gas consumption.

NJR also looked to expand its business in areas other than new technologies. In December 2000 it launched NJR Home Services to offer home-appliance repair, like many utilities around the country taking advantage of its relationship with customers and reputation for service to generate revenues in this nonregulated business. After 50 years since the creation of New Jersey Natural Gas, the company was generating more than $1.8 billion in annual sales, and with the market for natural gas expected to expand over the next two decades it was well positioned for many more years of strong growth.

Principal Subsidiaries: New Jersey Natural Gas Company; NJR Service Corporation; NJR Energy Services Company; NJR Retail Holdings Corporation.

Principal Competitors: Conectiv; Orange & Rockland Utilities, Inc.; PSEG.

Related information about New Jersey

pop (2000e) 8 414 000, area 20 168 km²/7787 sq mi. State in E USA, divided into 21 counties; the ‘Garden State’; one of the original states of the Union, third to ratify the Federal Constitution, 1787; colonized after the explorations of Verrazano (1524) and Hudson (1609); capital, Trenton; other chief cities, Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth; many of the state's communities are satellites of New York City; Hudson R follows the NE border, and the Delaware R the W border; Appalachian Highlands fall down through Piedmont Plateau to low coastal plains, broken by ridges of the Palisades; highest peak Mt High Point (550 m/1804 ft); 40% of the land forested, mostly in the SE; NE highly industrialized and densely populated; the rest mainly arable and grazing, producing dairy products, hay, soybeans; a major industrial and commercial area; chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electronics, metals, machinery, textiles, processed foods; many tourist centres; casino gambling at Atlantic City; smoking in indoor public places banned (Jan 2006), but gambling areas of casinos in Atlantic City exempt.



New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania. Parts of New Jersey lie within the metropolitan areas of New York, Philadelphia, and the Delaware Valley.

Inhabited by Native Americans for more than 11,000 years, the area was settled by the Swedes and Dutch. The British later seized control of the region, which was granted to Sir George Carteret and John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton as the colony of New Jersey. New Jersey's position at the center of the BosWash megalopolis, between Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and reservoir system of neighboring Greater New York City, the slightest dry season leads to drought warnings; It is also at the center of the Boston to Washington megalopolis.

New Jersey is broadly divided into three geographic regions: North Jersey, Central Jersey, and South Jersey. The regions are:

  • Gateway Region, encompassing Hudson County, Essex County, Union County, Middlesex County, Bergen County, and Passaic County.
  • Skylands Region, encompassing Sussex County, Morris County, Warren County, Hunterdon County, and Somerset County.
  • Shore Region, encompassing Monmouth County and Ocean County.
  • Delaware River Region, encompassing Mercer County, Burlington County, Camden County, Gloucester County, and Salem County.
  • Greater Atlantic City Region, encompassing Atlantic County.
  • Southern Shore Region, encompassing Cumberland County and Cape May County.

High Point, in Montague Township, Sussex County, is the highest elevation, at 1,803 feet (550 m).

Major rivers include the Manasquan, Maurice, Mullica, Passaic, Hackensack, Rahway, Rancocas, Raritan, Musconetcong, and Delaware rivers. It is a barrier spit and an extension of the Barnegat Peninsula along the state's Atlantic Ocean coast.

Areas managed by the National Park Service include:

  • Appalachian National Scenic Trail
  • Delaware National Scenic River
  • Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
  • Edison National Historic Site in West Orange
  • Ellis Island National Monument
  • Gateway National Recreation Area in Monmouth County
  • Great Egg Harbor River
  • Morristown National Historical Park in Morristown
  • New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail Route
  • New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve

Prominent geographic features include:

  • Delaware Water Gap
  • The Highlands
  • New Jersey Meadowlands
  • Pine Barrens
  • South Mountain

Climate

New Jersey has a temperate climate, with warm/hot summers and cool/cold winters. During the hurricane season, tropical cyclones can hit New Jersey, though it is unusual for them to travel this far up the east coast. For example, these are the average high and low temperatures for Cape May, NJ and Sussex, NJ:

Sussex
 Cape May
High Low High Low
January
 34 14 42 27
February
 38 16 43 28
March
 47 25 51 35
April
 59 35 60 43
May
 70 45 69 53
June
 78 54 78 62
July
 83 59 84 67
August
 82 57 83 66
September
 74 49 77 60
October
 63 37 66 49
November
 51 30 56 40
December
 39 21 47 31

History


Some claim there is evidence suggesting that people have inhabited New Jersey since 10,500 BC. On September 4, 1609 he dropped anchor in Cape May and took a crew of 20 men for a week of exploration. The Lenni-Lenape Native Americans tribe was part of the greater Algonquin nation. The Dutch colony of New Netherland consisted of parts of modern New York (Nieuw Amsterdam) and New Jersey. Although the European principle of land ownership was not recognized by the Lenape, Dutch policy required formal purchase of all land settled upon, and the first such purchase was of Manhattan, by Peter Minuit.

The entire region became a territory of England in 1664, when a British fleet under the command of Colonel Richard Nicolls sailed into what is today New York Harbor and took over the colony, against extremely little resistance.

During the English Civil War the Channel Isle of Jersey remained loyal to the Crown and gave sanctuary to the King. The North American lands were divided by Charles II, who gave his brother, the Duke of York (later King James II) the region between New England and Maryland as a proprietary colony (as opposed to a royal colony). James then granted the land between the Hudson River and the Delaware River (the land that would become New Jersey) to two friends who had remained loyal through the English Civil War: Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley of Stratton.

Settlement for the first 10 years of English rule was in the Hudson River region and came primarily from New England. On March 18, 1673, Berkeley sold his half of the colony to Quakers in England (with William Penn acting as trustee for a time), who settled the Delaware Valley region as a Quaker colony. New Jersey was governed as two distinct provinces, West Jersey and East Jersey, for the 28 years between 1674 and 1702.

Revolutionary War era


New Jersey was one of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. The New Jersey Constitution of 1776 was passed July 2, 1776, just two days before the Second Continental Congress declared American Independence from Britain.

New Jersey representatives Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, and Abraham Clark were among the men who signed the United States Declaration of Independence. Because of this, New Jersey today is often referred to as "The Crossroads of the Revolution."

On Christmas Day, 1776, the Continental Army under George Washington crossed the Delaware River and engaged the unprepared Hessian troops in the Battle of Trenton. Slightly more than a week after victory at Trenton, on January 3, 1777, the American forces gained an important victory by stopping Cornwallis's charges at the Second Battle of Trenton. By evading Cornwallis's army, Washington made a surprise attack on Princeton, and successfully defeated the British garrison there.

Later, American forces under Washington met the forces under General Henry Clinton at the Battle of Monmouth in an indecisive engagement. The ranks were later reorganized and withstood the British charges.

In the summer of 1783, the Continental Congress met in Nassau Hall at Princeton University, making Princeton the nation's capital for four months. It was there that the Continental Congress learned of the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended the war.

New Jersey was the third state to ratify the United States Constitution, which was overwhelmingly popular in New Jersey, as it prevented New York and Pennsylvania from charging and keeping tariffs on goods imported from Europe. In November 20, 1789, the state became the first in the newly-formed Union to ratify the Bill of Rights.

The 1776 New Jersey State Constitution gave the vote to "all inhabitants" who had a certain level of wealth. 2 (1992): 159–193.)

Nineteenth century


On February 15, 1804, New Jersey became the last northern state to abolish slavery by enacting legislation that slowly phased out slavery. However, by the close of the Civil War, about a dozen African-Americans in New Jersey were still apprenticed freedmen. In total, soldiers from New Jersey formed 4 militia regiments, 33 infantry regiments, 3 cavalry regiments, and 5 batteries of light artillery.

New Jersey was one of the few states to reject President Abraham Lincoln twice in national elections, and sided with Stephen Douglas and George B. During the war, the state was led first by Republican Governor Charles Smith Olden, then by Democrat Joel Parker.

In 1844, the second state constitution was ratified and brought into effect. This provision was retained in the 1947 Constitution, but was overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1961.

While the Governorship was stronger than under the 1776 constitution (it could hardly be weaker), the 1844 created many offices that were not responsible to him, or to the people, and gave him a three-year term, but he could not succeed himself.

In the Industrial Revolution, cities like Paterson grew and prospered. Transportation was greatly improved as locomotion and steamboats were introduced to New Jersey.

Iron mining was also a prevalent industry during the middle to late 1800s. In addition, Camp Kilmer, Fort Dix (originally called "Camp Dix"), and Camp Merritt were all constructed to help American soldiers through both World Wars. Fourteen Nike Missile stations were constructed, especially for the defense of New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Kennedy, was built at the Elco Boatworks in Bayonne, and the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CV-6) was briefly docked at the Military Ocean Terminal in Bayonne in the 1950s before she was sent to Japan to be scrapped.

New Jersey became a prosperous state through the Roaring Twenties but fell in prosperity under the Great Depression. The 1930s, Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2000. During this time period, the zeppelin Hindenburg went up in flames over Lakehurst.

In the 1960s, several race riots sprang up in New Jersey, the first of which occurred in Jersey City on August 2, 1964. The 1960s race riots in Freehold are mentioned in the Bruce Springsteen song "My Hometown". and a large percentage of the population is Black, Hispanic, Arab, and Asian. It has the second highest Indian American population of any state by absolute numbers.
The Foreign Born from India in the United States, dated December 1, 2003
Race/ethnicity citation with state percentages (Adobe PDF)
Diversity index citation with state percentages (Microsoft Excel)
Ancestry citation with state percentages (Adobe PDF)

The five largest ancestry groups are: Italian (17.9%), Irish (15.9%), African American (13.6%), German (12.6%), Polish (6.9%).

Newark and Camden are two of the poorest cities in America, but New Jersey as a whole has the highest median household income among the states. This is largely because so much of New Jersey consists of suburbs, most of them affluent, of New York City and Philadelphia. New Jersey is also the most densely populated state in the nation, and the only state that has had every one of its counties deemed "urban" as defined by the Census Bureau's Combined Statistical Area.www.census.gov/population/estimates/metro-city/99mfips.txt

The dominant race, ethnicity, or ancestry by county, according to the 2000 Census, are the following:

  • Italian - Bergen, Morris, Somerset, Ocean, Monmouth
  • Irish - Sussex
  • Black - Essex, Union, Mercer, Hudson
  • German - Warren, Hunterdon
  • Polish/Slavic - Middlesex
  • Puerto Rican/Hispanic - Hudson, Passaic

6.7% of its population were reported as under 5, 24.8% under 18, and 13.2% were 65 or older. Women in New Jersey earn the highest per capita income as stated in a 2002 article in the Newark Star-Ledger.

New Jersey has seven tax brackets for determining income tax rates. This is a list of the major oil refineries in the state:

  • Bayway Refinery (ConocoPhillips), Linden 230,000 barrels per day (bpd)
  • Eagle Point Refinery (Sunoco), Westville 145,000 bpd
  • Paulsboro Asphalt Refinery (Citgo), Paulsboro 51,000 bpd
  • Paulsboro Refinery (Valero), Paulsboro 160,000 bpd
  • Perth Amboy Refinery (Chevron), Perth Amboy 80,000 bpd
  • Port Reading Refinery (Hess), Port Reading 62,000 bpd

While home to many chemical plants New Jersey also is home to major pharmacutical firms Merck, Wyeth, Johnson and Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer, Hoffman-LaRoche, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Schering-Plough. It draws upon its large and well-educated labor pool which also supports the myriad of industries that exist today.

Entertainment

Professional sports teams

New Jersey currently has four major professional sports league teams playing in the state, although the Major League Soccer team and two National Football League teams identify as being from New York. It is also the most populous state without a Major League Baseball team, though most residents support the New York Yankees, New York Mets, or Philadelphia Phillies.

  • National Hockey League
    • New Jersey Devils
  • National Basketball Association
    • New Jersey Nets
  • Major League Soccer
    • Red Bull New York
    • possible 2009 expansion team in Glassboro, New Jersey
  • Major League Lacrosse
    • New Jersey Pride
    • Bergen River Dogs
  • National Football League
    • New York Giants
    • New York Jets
  • American Basketball Association
    • Newark Express
  • Great Lakes Indoor Football League
    • New York/New Jersey Revolution
  • Minor League Baseball teams
    • Atlantic City Surf
    • Bergen Cliff Hawks (planned, expected to play at the Meadowlands Xanadu Complex)
    • Camden Riversharks
    • Lakewood BlueClaws
    • New Jersey Jackals (Montclair)
    • Newark Bears
    • Somerset Patriots (Bridgewater)
    • Sussex Skyhawks (Augusta)
    • Trenton Thunder
  • Minor League Hockey team
    • Trenton Titans


The state's four major professional sports teams play at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford. The Xanadu Project, when completed in 2007, will be the largest retail and entertainment complex in New Jersey.

The sports complex is also home to the Meadowlands Racetrack one of three major horse racing tracks in the state. The Meadowlands Racetrack along with Freehold Raceway in Freehold are two of the major harness racing tracks in North America. Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, is also a popular spot for thoroughbred racing in New Jersey and the northeast. It will host the Breeders' Cup in 2007, and its turf course was recently renovated in preparation.

Gambling

In 1978, the New Jersey legistaure approved casino gambling in Atlantic City. This toll road carries interstate traffic between Delaware and New York. United States Presidents Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson; writers James Fenimore Cooper, Joyce Kilmer, and Walt Whitman; and football coach Vince Lombardi.

The Garden State Parkway, or simply "the Parkway", carries more in-state traffic and runs from the town of Montvale along New Jersey's northern border to its southernmost tip at Cape May for 172.4 miles. It is the trunk that connects the New York metropolitan area to Atlantic City.

Other expressways in New Jersey include the Atlantic City Expressway, the Palisades Interstate Parkway, Interstate 76, Interstate 78, Interstate 80, Interstate 195, Interstate 280, Interstate 287, and Interstate 295.

New Jersey has interstate compacts with all three neighboring states. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Delaware River Port Authority (with Pennsylvania), and the Delaware River and Bay Authority (with Delaware) operate most of the major transportation routes into and out of New Jersey. The Washington Crossing and Scudders Falls (on I-95) bridges near Trenton, as well as Trenton's Calhoun Street and Bridge Street ("Trenton Makes") bridges, are toll-free.

Airports

Newark Liberty International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the United States. Operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the other two major airports in the New York City region (John F. The adjacent Newark Airport railroad station provides access to the trains of Amtrak and New Jersey Transit along the Northeast Corridor Line.

Two smaller commercial airports, Atlantic City International Airport and Trenton-Mercer Airport, also operate in other parts of New Jersey. Teterboro Airport, in Bergen County, is a general aviation airport popular with private and corporate aircraft, due to its proximity to New York City. In the early 1980s, it acquired the commuter train operations of Conrail that connect towns in northern and central New Jersey to New York City. Most of the trains start at various points in the state and most end at either Pennsylvania Station, in New York City, or Hoboken Terminal in Hoboken. NJ Transit began service between Atlantic City and Lindenwold in 1989 and extended it to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the 1990s. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail connects Bayonne to North Bergen, with planned expansion into Bergen County communities. The last of the three light rail lines is the River LINE which connects Trenton and Camden.

The PATH links North Jersey and New York City. The lines all start in either Hudson County or Essex County, New Jersey and end either at the World Trade Center station or at 33rd Street in Midtown Manhattan.

The PATCO High Speedline links Camden County and Philadelphia. PATCO operates stations in Lindenwold, Voorhess, Cherry Hill, Haddonfield, Haddon Township, Collingswood, and Camden, along with 4 stations in Philadelphia. In addition to the Newark Airport connection, other major Amtrak railway stations include Trenton Rail Station, Metropark, and the grand historic Newark Penn Station.

SEPTA also has two lines that operate into New Jersey. The R7 lines terminates at the Trenton Rail Station, and the R3 lines terminates at the West Trenton Rail Station in Ewing.

Some private bus carriers still remain in New Jersey. Other carriers include private charter and tour bus operators that take gamblers from other parts of New Jersey, New York City, Philadelphia, and Delaware to the casino resorts of Atlantic City.

Private bus carriers

  • Academy
  • Bergen Avenue IBOA
  • Broadway IBOA
  • Coach USA Properties including Red & Tan
  • DeCamp
  • Greyhound- provides interstate service
  • Lakeland Bus Lines
  • MARTZ- does not receive state funding or buses
  • Montgomery & West Side IBOA
  • Trans-Bridge Lines
Carriers providing contract service to NJ Transit
  • #22 Hillside Corp. & Academy Express (Academy)
  • Community Transportation (Coach USA)
  • Connex
  • PABCO Transit
  • Red & Tan (Coach USA)

Law and government


Jon Corzine (Democrat) is the governor. Richard Codey was the last to serve that way as the result of a constitutional amendment approved by the voters in 2005.

The governor's mansion is Drumthwacket, located in Princeton Township.

New Jersey is currently one of the few states that has no Lieutenant Governor. The first Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey will take office in January, 2010 and will be elected conjointly with the Governor of New Jersey. The position was created as the result of a Constitutional amendment to the New Jersey State Constitution passed by the voters on November 8, 2005 and effective as of January 17, 2006.

The current version of the New Jersey State Constitution was adopted in 1947. It provides for a bicameral Legislature consisting of a Senate of 40 members and an Assembly of 80 members. See for the constitution

The New Jersey Supreme Court Supreme Court of New Jersey consists of a chief justice and six associate justices. Justices serve an initial seven-year term, after which they can be reappointed to serve until age 70.

On July 1, 2006, at 9:30 am, the government of New Jersey closed down amid a budget dispute between Governor Jon Corzine and Assembly Democrats over a rise in the state's sales tax from 6% to 7% in order to fill a budget gap. Governor Corzine announced that state parks, state-run beaches, and casinos in Atlantic City (regulated by the state government's New Jersey Casino Control Commission) would close by the morning of July 5, 2006, if no budget agreement had passed by then, due to the lack of state monitors from NJCCC, which is required to be present at casinos by law. New Jersey is the only state in the nation where elected county officials are called "Freeholders," governing each county as part of its own Board of Chosen Freeholders. In other counties (Atlantic, Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Mercer), there is a directly-elected County Executive who performs the executive functions while the Board of Chosen Freeholders retains a legislative and oversight role.

Types of government

When the types of government were devised in the nineteenth century, the intention was that cities would be large built-up areas, with progressively smaller boroughs, towns, and villages; Some townships—notably Middletown, Brick, Hamilton, and Dover (which includes Toms River)—have, without changing their boundaries, become large stretches of suburbia, as populous as cities, often focused around shopping centers and highways rather than traditional downtowns and main streets.

As with Toms River, many locations in New Jersey are simply neighborhoods, with no exact boundaries; often the cluster of houses, the traditional neighborhood, the postal district, and the Census designated place will differ.

The Federal Government has often failed to understand that a New Jersey township is just another municipality, and some municipalities have changed forms to become the Township of the Borough of Verona or the Township of South Orange Village to receive more Federal aid. This was followed by the 1923 Municipal Manager Law, which offered a non-partisan council, provided for a weak mayor elected by and from the members of the council, and introduced Council-Manager government with an (ideally apolitical) appointed manager responsible for day-to-day administration of municipal affairs.

The Faulkner Act, originally enacted in 1950 and substantially amended in 1981, offers four basic plans: Mayor-Council, Council-Manager, Small Municipality, and Mayor-Council-Administrator. Municipalities can also formulate their own unique form of government and operate under a Special Charter with the approval of the New Jersey Legislature.

While municipalities retain their types of government, they may have changed to one of the modern forms of government, or further in the past to one of the other traditional forms, leading to municipalities with formal names quite baffling to the general public. It was, however, a Republican stronghold for years in the past, having given comfortable margins of victory to the Republican candidate in the close elections of 1948, 1968, and 1976. New Jersey was a crucial swing state in the elections of 1960, 1968, and 1992. Williams resigned the Senate seat following the Abscam investigations.)

The state's Democratic strongholds include Mercer County around Trenton and Princeton; Essex County and Hudson County, the state's two most urban counties, around the state's two largest cities, Newark and Jersey City; Camden County and most of the other urban communities just outside of Philadelphia and New York; and more suburban northern counties in New York's orbit, such as Union County and Middlesex County.

The more suburban northwestern and southeastern counties of the state are reliably Republican: Republicans have backing along the coast in Ocean County and in the mountainous northwestern part of the state, especially Sussex County, Morris County, and Warren County. For an example, Bergen County, which leans Republican in the northern half of the county, is mostly Democratic in the more populated southern parts, causing it to usually vote slightly Democratic (same with Passaic County, with a highly populated Hispanic Democratic south and a rural, Republican north), other "swing" counties like Cape May County tend to go Republican, as they also have population in conservative areas.

Socially, New Jersey is considered one of the highly liberal and progressive states in the nation. With the 2004 Census estimate, Woodbridge has surpassed Edison in population, as both joined the 100,000 club.

  • Newark: 273,546 (Census Estimate 2004: 280,451)
  • Jersey City: 240,055 (Census Estimate 2004: 239,079)
  • Paterson: 149,222 (Census Estimate 2004: 150,869)
  • Elizabeth: 120,568 (Census Estimate 2004: 124,724)
  • Edison 97,687 (Census Estimate 2004: 100,142)
  • Woodbridge Township: 97,203 (Census Estimate 2004: 100,775)

Towns and small cities (60,000 up to 100,000)

  • Dover Township: 89,706 (Census Estimate 2004: 94,320) - the Census 2000 total includes the population of Toms River, a census-designated place within Dover Township. Dover Township is not to be confused with the town of Dover, which is in Morris County.
  • Hamilton Township (Mercer County): 87,109
  • Trenton: 85,403
  • Camden: 79,904
  • Clifton: 78,672
  • Brick Township: 76,119
  • Cherry Hill Township: 69,965
  • East Orange: 69,824
  • Passaic: 67,861
  • Union City: 67,088
  • Middletown Township: 66,327
  • Gloucester Township: 64,350
  • Bayonne: 61,842
  • Irvington: 60,695
  • Old Bridge Township 60,456
  • Lakewood Township 60,352

Other (less than 60,000)

The following communities are other notable places in New Jersey with under 60,000 people.
(col-begin)

  • Asbury Park
  • Atlantic City
  • Cape May
  • Collingswood
  • East Brunswick
  • Egg Harbor Township
  • Englewood
  • Evesham Township
  • Ewing Township
  • Freehold Township
  • Fort Lee
  • Hackensack
  • Hackettstown
  • Haddonfield
  • Hillsborough
  • Hoboken
  • Holmdel
  • Jackson
  • Lambertville
  • Livingston
  • Long Branch
  • Maplewood
  • Montclair
  • Moorestown
  • Morristown
  • New Brunswick
  • The Oranges
    • Orange
    • East Orange
    • South Orange
    • West Orange
  • Piscataway
  • Plainfield
  • Point Pleasant
  • Princeton
    • Princeton Borough
    • Princeton Township
  • Red Bank
  • Ridgewood
  • Spring Lake
  • Teaneck
  • Tenafly
  • Union
  • Vernon Township
  • Wayne Township
  • The Wildwoods
    • Wildwood
  • Willingboro Township

(col-end)

Wealth of municipalities

Wealth of municipalities by per capita income:

1 Mantoloking, New Jersey $114,017

2 Saddle River, New Jersey $85,934

3 Far Hills, New Jersey $81,535

4 Essex Fells, New Jersey $77,434

5 Alpine, New Jersey $76,995

6 Millburn, New Jersey $76,796

7 Rumson, New Jersey $73,692

8 Harding Township, New Jersey $72,689

9 Teterboro, New Jersey $72,613

10 Bernardsville, New Jersey $69,854

 693 Newark, New Jersey $13,009

694 Laurel Lake, New Jersey $12,965

695 Passaic, New Jersey $12,874

696 Seabrook Farms, New Jersey $12,499

697 McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey $12,364

698 New Hanover Township, New Jersey $12,140

699 Lakewood, New Jersey $11,802

700 Bridgeton, New Jersey $10,917

701 Fort Dix, New Jersey $10,543

702 Camden, New Jersey $9,815

Education

Although some problems exist in certain inner city neighborhoods, New Jersey overall is considered to have one of the best public education systems in the United States.

Colleges and universities

  • Assumption College for Sisters, Mendham
  • Berkeley College, various campuses
  • Bloomfield College, Bloomfield
  • Caldwell College, Caldwell
  • Centenary College, Hackettstown
  • The College of New Jersey, Ewing Township
  • College of Saint Elizabeth, Morristown-Florham Park
  • DeVry University, North Brunswick
  • Drew University, Madison

Chronology

  • Key Dates:
  • 1922: County Gas Company is formed.
  • 1929: Public Service Corporation of New Jersey acquires County Gas.
  • 1948: Investors buy County Gas from Public Service.
  • 1951: County Gas acquires gas assets of Jersey Central Power & Light.
  • 1952: County Gas changes its name to New Jersey Natural Gas Company.
  • 1982: A holding company, New Jersey Resources Corporation, is formed.
  • 1995: Laurence M. Downes is named CEO.

Additional topics

Company HistoryElectricity & Utilities

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