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Hudson County Assembly members Joan Quigley and Vincent Prieto, along with Bergen County’s Connie Wagner, are criticizing Gov. Chris Christie over his administration’s decision to suspend the state’s film and TV tax credit for a year, which recently forced the production unit for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit to move from Hudson County to Manhattan.

The legislators say the film tax credit decision is particularly galling given the Christie administration’s announcement today that it hopes to expand the Business Retention and Relocation Assistance Act Grant (BRRAG), which is designed to preserve jobs from being relocated out of state. The program offers a grant of up to $1,500 per job retained, payable in the form of a tax credit against a company’s corporate business tax liability.

“The governor had no problem today announcing that he was looking for extra money to create jobs, yet just a month ago, the state was so strapped for cash that he had to put 200 people out of work,” Prieto says in a statement. “He can’t have it both ways. How can we have to cut film tax credits one month and then look to increase BRRAG grants the next?”

In announcing the decision of Honeywell to keep its headquarters in Morris Township earlier today, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno said the administration hopes to expand the BRRAG grant program from one year to six and increase the amount of money per employee to $2,225 per employee.

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