Investing in Veterans, Not Just Supporting Them: What New Jersey’s Debate Signals for America
TL;DR — “Veterans can drive N.J.’s future economy, but we’re stuck in the past.”
The article argues that while many states offer ceremonial support to veterans, what’s really needed is active investment — treating veterans and their families as drivers of economic growth rather than passive beneficiaries.
Veterans launch businesses at significantly higher rates than non-veterans, and military spouses and family members also offer unique skills (adaptability, resilience, project management) that make them valuable contributors to entrepreneurship and the workforce.
States like Texas and Florida are described as capturing this potential by offering veteran-specific business incentives, streamlined licensing, preferential contracting for veteran-owned firms, and support structures that turn military experience into competitive economic advantage.
The article calls on New Jersey to adopt similar policies — tax incentives, procurement quotas, veteran business accelerators, and licensing reforms — to stop losing business, talent, and innovation to states already treating veteran entrepreneurship as an economic strategy.
For (NIVW), this reinforces the core message: recognition of veterans is meaningful only if it’s paired with real structural investment — making veterans and their families central to economic growth and community resilience.
Read the full article here:
https://www.nj.com/opinion/2025/12/veterans-can-drive-njs-future-economy-but-were-stuck-in-the-past-opinion.html
As National Invest In Veterans Week® (NIVW), we see Scott E. Rutter’s recent guest column in NJ.com for what it is: a warning shot and a blueprint.
Rutter, a retired lieutenant colonel, business owner, and CEO of The Valor Network, argues that New Jersey is “supporting” veterans while other states are strategically investing in them and their families as a primary engine of economic growth. He contrasts New Jersey with states like Texas and Florida, which deliberately recruit veteran entrepreneurs, military families, and defense-driven innovators with tax policy, procurement priorities, and purpose-built business ecosystems.
That distinction—support versus investment—is the core philosophy behind National Invest In Veterans Week®. Our movement was built on the idea that veterans and their families are not a charity line item; they are a competitive advantage.
Veterans and families as an economic strategy
Rutter’s column underlines several key data points and lived realities that NIVW has championed for years:
Veterans start businesses at higher rates than non-veterans, bringing leadership experience, operational discipline, and comfort with high-stakes decision-making.
Military spouses and family members are often the quiet backbone of those enterprises: managing logistics during deployments, adapting to new environments, and building community cohesion wherever they go.
Today’s veterans come home with expertise in cybersecurity, logistics, AI applications, advanced manufacturing, drone operations, and other frontier technologies—exactly the sectors governors say they want to grow.
Rutter’s message to New Jersey policymakers is blunt: if you want the next generation of high-growth companies, you must deliberately recruit and retain the veteran community and their families. From the NIVW perspective, that is not just good social policy—it is sound economic strategy.
How states like Texas and Florida operationalize “investment”
In his piece, Rutter points to states that have moved beyond ceremonial appreciation toward tangible incentives. These strategies mirror themes we see across proclamations and partnerships that power National Invest In Veterans Week® nationwide:
Streamlined business registration and licensing for veteran-owned and military-spouse-owned firms
Aggressive state-contracting goals for veteran-owned businesses, paired with real enforcement
Income- and property-tax structures that make it rational, not just patriotic, for veterans to build companies and careers there
Veteran-focused accelerators and university partnerships in high-growth sectors such as AI, cybersecurity, and advanced manufacturing
When governors and legislators combine these tools, the result is not simply “veteran programs.” It is a competitive economic platform that attracts entrepreneurs, capital, and employers who value the veteran talent pipeline.
That is precisely the ecosystem National Invest In Veterans Week® was designed to highlight and scale.
Where New Jersey stands—and what could change
New Jersey possesses much of the raw material Rutter describes: a proud military tradition, access to capital, major universities, and a history of world-changing innovation—from Bell Labs to life-sciences corridors.
What it lacks, he argues, is a cohesive veterans-investment thesis.
The proposed New Jersey Veterans Investment Act that Rutter sketches out would change that by:
Treating veteran and military-family employment incentives as core economic-development tools
Establishing meaningful state-contracting targets for veteran-owned businesses
Building accelerators tied to universities and focused on technologies where veteran skill sets are strongest
Recruiting veteran-owned firms and transitioning service members with the same intensity used to court large corporations
From the NIVW vantage point, such legislation would do more than improve one state’s rankings. It would signal that New Jersey intends to compete in the same arena as states already leveraging veteran talent as a growth driver.
How this connects to National Invest In Veterans Week®
National Invest In Veterans Week® was created to move the national conversation from “thank you for your service” to “how are we investing in your leadership?”
The Congressional Record recognition of NIVW, along with proclamations from governors, state legislatures, county commissions, and mayors across the country, has helped crystallize a simple message:
Veterans and their families are not peripheral to the economy—they are central to its future.
Rutter’s call for New Jersey to step up aligns directly with that mission. His emphasis on veteran family members—spouses, children, caregivers—as co-architects of economic opportunity mirrors the reality we see across our state and international veterans-domain network:
Many of the most resilient veteran-owned enterprises are truly family enterprises.
Military spouses often carry portable careers in healthcare, education, technology, and small business management—fields that anchor communities.
When policy recognizes both the veteran and the family unit, retention, entrepreneurship, and long-term community investment all rise.
As governors, legislators, and economic-development leaders look ahead to the next National Invest In Veterans Week®, this New Jersey conversation should be viewed as a model, not a one-off op-ed.
A call to action from the NIVW lens
For policymakers far beyond New Jersey, Rutter’s argument surfaces three practical questions:
Is your state merely “supporting” veterans, or is it strategically investing in them as economic assets?
Do your tax, procurement, and regulatory structures make it obvious that veteran-owned and military-family-owned businesses are wanted and prioritized?
Are you building infrastructure—accelerators, university partnerships, targeted recruitment—to capture the talent leaving nearby bases and installations each year?
National Invest In Veterans Week® will continue to spotlight leaders who answer “yes” to those questions and challenge those who do not.
Check out the 9th Annual Vetrepreneur Summit in Jacksonville (Dec 12, 2025), a long-running gathering of veteran and military-family entrepreneurs. The Summit is now nine years strong and serves as a model of how veteran economic empowerment and community entrepreneurship can be built sustainably under .
👉 Jacksonville’s 9th Annual Vetrepreneur Summit – legacy event now nine years strong