On Monday, over the League’s objection, S-3593/A-5175 was amended and favorably reported from the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism, and Historic Preservation Committee. As a reminder, this legislation passed the full Assembly on May 25.
While the League supports the majority of this legislation to provide additional time for the administration of general elections, we currently oppose this legislation because section 19 amends the reorganization dates for all municipalities that have November non-partisan elections from January 1 to January 15.
This change has unintended consequences, including putting the municipality out of compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act, reducing the amount of time the governing body has to adopt a temporary budget, and potentially forcing a new municipal government to live with the decisions of a previous government.
The League has reached out to affected municipalities to alert them to this issue and urge them to reach out to their Senator as the bill is scheduled for a vote before the full Senate on June 20.
Contact: Paul Penna, Senior Legislative Analyst, ppenna@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, x110.