Posted on: December 8, 2023
The Assembly has passed A-4791, which would establish a “Resiliency and Environmental System Investment Charge Program.” The program would allow water and wastewater utilities to recover, outside of their rates, the cost of in...
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Budgeting
Posted on: December 8, 2023
On Thursday, the full Assembly was scheduled to vote on A-5659, which increases Workers’ Compensation contingency fees, but was removed from the agenda prior to the voting session.
As we reported last week, the Assembly Labor Committee favorably ...
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Budgeting
Posted on: December 1, 2023
On Thursday, the Assembly Labor Committee favorably reported A-5659, which increases workers’ compensation contingency fees.
This bill revises the workers’ compensation law to revise the cap on contingency fees to a prevailing ...
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Budgeting
Posted on: December 1, 2023
On Thursday, the Assembly Labor Committee favorably reported A-161, which revises workers’ compensation coverage for certain injuries to volunteer and professional public safety and law enforcement personnel.
This bill expands the individuals&...
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Budgeting
Posted on: October 13, 2023
The Division of Local Government Services (DLGS) has issued Local Finance Notices 2023-19 to address issues related to the CY 2024 municipal budget and the 1977 and 2010 cap laws.
The Division has advised that the appropriations cap COLA for CY ...
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Budgeting
Posted on: August 31, 2023
The New Jersey Department of the Treasury's Unclaimed Property Administration (UPA) announced an outreach campaign last week to reunite New Jersey's counties and municipalities with their property.
UPA will proactively contact th...
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Budgeting
Posted on: August 25, 2023
The Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has published proposed rules and amendments related to the Garden State Historic Preservation Trust Fund Grants.
The New Jersey Historic Trust is authorized to implement funding for Open Space, Farmland, and Histor...
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Budgeting
Posted on: August 17, 2023
On Wednesday, August 16, Governor Murphy signed A-5239/S-3734, P.L. 2023 c.144, extending the service life of school buses to 20 years and extends the service life of Type S school buses.
Prior to P.L. 2023 c. 144, school buses weighing...
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Budgeting
Posted on: July 7, 2023
Governor Murphy's plan to dedicate $200 million from federal pandemic relief funds to offset the over 20% rising health insurance premium rise did not secure a place in the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget. This plan was initially laid out in Governor Murphy's FY ...
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Budgeting
Posted on: June 30, 2023
The FY2024 Budget proposal includes $150 million in Municipal Relief funding in addition to Energy Tax Receipts Property Tax Relief funding.
As we previously reported late Thursday, both the Assembly Budget Committee and the Senate Budget and Appropriation...
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Budgeting
Posted on: June 30, 2023
The Assembly Budget Committee and the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee released on Tuesday S-3989/A-5675 which establishes the "Boardwalk Preservation Fund." The Boardwalk Preservation grant is part of the Governor’s budget p...
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Budgeting
Posted on: June 29, 2023
Last night, both the Assembly Budget Committee and the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee favorably reported A-5669/S-2024, the $54.3 billion FY2024 New Jersey Budget Bill. It includes an additional $150 million for Energy Tax Receipts (ETR), doub...
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Budgeting
Posted on: June 23, 2023
The League, the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, and New Jersey Urban Mayors Association, continue to call for the full restoration of Energy Tax Receipts. As a result of our collective outreach, Senator Greenstein and Assemblyman DeAngelo are sponsoring ...
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Budgeting
Posted on: June 23, 2023
Governor Murphy, Assembly Speaker Coughlin, and Senate President Scutari have jointly announced the Stay NJ agreement a property tax relief plan aimed at aiding New Jersey's senior residents. The Stay NJ plan provides a 50% property tax credit fo...
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Budgeting
Posted on: June 15, 2023
We are two weeks away from the deadline for the State to adopt their FY 2024 budget. Now is the time to act to get full restoration of Energy Tax Receipts included in the state budget.
The League, the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, and New Jers...
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Budgeting
Posted on: June 9, 2023
Senators O’Scanlon and Testa have introduced S-3906, the “Give It Back” property tax relief plan. The plan calls for $4.32 billion from the New Jersey Debt Defeasance & Prevention Fund to be appropriated to each municipal...
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Budgeting
Posted on: June 9, 2023
During the Assembly Aging and Senior Services Committee hearing on June 8, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin testified before the committee on the “Stay NJ Act” proposal. Assembly Speaker Coughlin highlighted the importance of recognizin...
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Budgeting
Posted on: June 8, 2023
The League, the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, and New Jersey Urban Mayors Association, continue to call for the full restoration of Energy Tax Receipts. As a result of our collective outreach, Senator Greenstein and Assemblyman DeAngelo are sponsoring ...
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Budgeting
Posted on: June 5, 2023
On May 25, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin unveiled the "Stay NJ Act" property tax relief plan, a comprehensive initiative designed to alleviate property taxes for seniors while also addressing the affordability of healthcare insurance and presc...
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Budgeting
Posted on: June 2, 2023
The League, the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, and the New Jersey Urban Mayors Association continue to call for the full restoration of Energy Tax Receipts. As a result of our collective outreach, Senator Greenstein and Assemblyman DeAngelo are sponsori...
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Budgeting
Posted on: June 2, 2023
On Wednesday night the House passed H.R. 3746, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 by a margin of 314-117 and on Thursday the Senate passed the legislation by a vote of 63-36 after a series of amendments were not agreed to. President is expected to imme...
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Budgeting
Posted on: May 26, 2023
This week, SCOTUS issued a unanimous decision in Tyler v. Hennepin County, Minnesota, a case where a property owner argued that the Minnesota state law allowing Hennepin County to retain a $25,000 surplus following the auction sale of her home for unpaid ...
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Budgeting
Posted on: May 26, 2023
The State Health Benefits Program Plan Design Committee met on Wednesday for the regularly scheduled meeting and discussed the following items:
- Potential increase in the contribution amount for High Deductible Health Plans to comply with recent guidance fr...
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Budgeting
Posted on: May 26, 2023
On Thursday, League staff worked the Statehouse and spoke with Assembly representatives before they went into caucus, urging them to support the full restoration of Energy Tax Receipts. Our thanks to East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov, who joined us and sp...
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Budgeting
Posted on: May 19, 2023
Earlier this week, the New Jersey State League of Municipalities (NJLM), the New Jersey Conference of Mayors (NJCM), and the New Jersey Urban Mayor’s Association (NJUMA) issued a letter signed by 401 mayors from across the state urging the State...
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Budgeting
Posted on: May 5, 2023
The proposed FY 2024 budget allocates $1.152 billion to the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), reflecting a reduction of 19.6% or $280 million from the adjusted appropriation of $1.432 billion in FY 2023. T...
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Budgeting
Posted on: May 5, 2023
Signed last month, P.L. 2023, c.33, requires any municipal water and wastewater utility or authority to enter into a vendor contract with the DCA to participate in the LIHWAP. LIHWAP is a federal program being administered by the DCA that provide...
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Budgeting
Posted on: March 31, 2023
Thomas Koeing, Legislative Budget and Finance Officer for the State’s Office of Legislative Services (OLS), provided a budget overview and revenue forecast. Mr. Koeing revealed that the combined state revenues for Fiscal Year 2023 and Fiscal Yea...
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Budgeting
Posted on: March 10, 2023
The League is asking our members to answer a short survey aimed at gathering information related to individual municipalities efforts to comply with the NJDEP’s new MS4 permit program requirements.
The New Jersey Department o...
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Budgeting
Posted on: March 3, 2023
On February 28, Governor Murphy delivered his 2024 Fiscal Year Budget Address. The proposed budget is $53.1 billion, includes a surplus of over $10 billion, and is 5% greater than the FY2023 budget. While the budget document is not available yet, the Budg...
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Budgeting
Posted on: March 3, 2023
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) has issued a Request for Comments, seeking input from interested parties regarding the conversion of existing streetlights to LED streetlights. Specifically, seeking information related to streetlight and p...
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Budgeting
Posted on: February 24, 2023
The Division of Local Government Services issued Local Finance Notice 2023-04 announcing one-time exemptions to the appropriation cap for certain items for the Calendar Year 2023/State Fiscal Year 2024 budget and guidance on usage and reporting Opioid Set...
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Budgeting
Posted on: February 24, 2023
On Wednesday, the State Health Benefits Commission Plan Design Committee met for its February meeting. During the Director’s report, it was noted that 27 entities have left the State Health Benefits Plans since it enacted a nearly 23% rate incre...
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Budgeting
Posted on: February 17, 2023
The Division of Local Government Services has updated the Levy Cap workbook to include the appropriation cap exemptions granted at the February 8 Local Finance Board meeting.
As we reported last week, the Local Finance Board unanimously approved ...
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Budgeting
Posted on: February 6, 2023
This week, League staff participated in a stakeholder meeting hosted by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) regarding the New Jersey Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NJPDES) permit fees. The meeting was to introduce the NJ...
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Budgeting
Posted on: January 31, 2023
Unfortunately, as we reported last week, the talks regarding relief for raising healthcare premium costs remain unresolved. This comes among news that Newark, Camden, and Trenton have all left the State Health Benefits system, or are in the process of doi...
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Budgeting
Posted on: January 9, 2023
The New Year has come and the 379 municipalities participating in the State Health Benefits system, along with their employees, and ultimately their taxpayers, will still have to fund a 22% increase in health benefits costs, unless an immediate solution i...
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Budgeting
Posted on: January 9, 2023
In the final week of December, the House and Senate passed, and President Biden signed a $1.7 trillion FY2023 federal budget through September 30, 2023. For provisions of state and local interest, please read the League’s two blog posts, the fir...
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Budgeting
Posted on: December 23, 2022
Last week, the White House released the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Guidebook of Clean Energy provisions in the law. This guidebook provides an overview of the clean energy, climate mitigation and resilience, agriculture, and conservation-relat...
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Budgeting
Posted on: December 23, 2022
On Thursday, the Senate, by a vote of 68-29 passed the FY2023 federal budget. As of this writing on Friday morning, the House is expected to pass the budget bill. The $1.7 trillion document funds all governmental departments through September 202...
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Budgeting
Posted on: December 23, 2022
The statutory deadlines for budget introduction and adoption have been revised. Municipal budgets must be introduced by March 31, instead of February 10, and adopted by April 28, instead of March 20. The Mayor/Council Faulkner Act budget transmission to g...
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Budgeting
Posted on: December 19, 2022
The League of Municipalities, the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, the New Jersey Urban Mayors Association, and New Jersey Association of Counties have been working with other interested stakeholders, including the major public sector union representative...
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Budgeting
Posted on: December 19, 2022
On Monday the Senate will be considering S-3380, which would exempt gasoline and diesel fuel costs; solid waste and recycling collection and disposal costs, as well as disposal of yard waste; cyber insurance costs; liability insurance costs; work...
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Budgeting