Public Administration
New State Law Enforces Tougher Penalties for Home Invasions – On October 18th, Governor Murphy signed Bill S3006/3204, establishing stricter penalties for home invasions and burglaries. The law specifically creates two new categories for home invasion offenses, imposing harsher sentences and fines for using deadly weapons during break-ins. This legislation comes in response to a number of high-profile incidents, including the burglary of an Assemblyman’s home and the death of a Cumberland County detective during a home invasion.
New Jersey Announced Development of Strategic Plan to Address Food Insecurity – Earlier this month, the New Jersey Office of the Food Security Advocate announced plans to develop the state’s first strategic plan to address food insecurity and hunger in New Jersey. The plan will be developed with stakeholder inputs, including food pantries and banks, activists, nonprofits, and state officials, with development scheduled to begin in December. The announcement came during the first-ever ‘summit’ in Mount Laurel focused on food insecurity, where activists, nonprofit leaders, and legislators gathered to unify and coordinate efforts tackling this issue. According to the state’s Department of Human Services, food insecurity affects an estimated average of 800,000 New Jerseyans each month.
State Tax Collections Increasing but Budget Gap Persists – The Department of the Treasury announced that tax revenue for July, August, and September, or the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year, increased by around $335 million, or about 4%, compared to the previous year. While the overall growth of collections remains aligned with the Treasury’s projections, certain sources like income and corporation business taxes outperformed prior expectations. However, projected revenue is not sufficient to fully cover the over $2 billion budget gap in the record-high $57 billion fiscal year 2025 budget signed by Governor Murphy in June. A Pew Charitable Trusts report ranked New Jersey’s budget reserves in the bottom third of all U.S. states, finding that the state could only operate for 54 days on just its budget reserves, compared to a nationwide median of 88 days.
Education
Universities Call for Greater State Oversight and Funding Alongside Growing Financial Instability – On October 15th, leaders of New Jersey’s public colleges urged for increased state oversight and financial support to address growing financial challenges, including increasingly high debt and a projected 10% enrollment drop by 2035. College and university leaders argue that institutions have been increasingly in charge of funding burdens since lawmakers approved legislation in 1994. The legislation abolished the Board and Department of Higher Education and favored decentralized governance, giving more power to schools’ governing boards. While this decision was initially praised for providing universities greater flexibility, leaders now argue it has contributed to reduced state funding and a lack of cohesive higher education policy statewide. In fiscal year 2024, New Jersey provided $323 million more in aid to public universities compared to three decades ago.
Housing
DCA Announces Affordable Housing Quotas for Each Municipality – On October 18th, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs announced that municipalities must construct or rehabilitate 146,000 affordable housing units over the next decade. This marks the first time in decades that each municipality was assigned a specific obligation to fulfill and follows Governor Murphy’s signing of Bill A4 (P.L.2024, c.2.) in March. This bill codified Supreme Court rulings requiring each municipality to provide its “fair share” of affordable housing. The 146,000 required units is smaller than the 200,000 figure often cited by lawmakers and activists. Municipalities have until January to accept the state’s numbers or propose their own, and local officials then have until June 2025, to adopt plans.
Economy
Assembly Advances Bill Permanently Allowing Outdoor Dining – On October 17th, the Assembly Oversight, Reform, and Federal Relations Committee unanimously advanced Bill A4866, which would permanently extend COVID-era regulations allowing outdoor dining and alcohol service for restaurants, bars, and other establishments. The bill provides authority to local municipalities and the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control to issue outdoor dining permits. It also allows municipalities flexibility in regulating hours-of-operation, musical performance, and other aspects of the outdoor areas. State officials lauded the extension of outdoor dining as an economic boom for the state’s many small businesses. Outdoor dining and alcohol service was first permitted following a pandemic-era executive order in June 2020 and has since been extended only on a temporary basis.
Health
Governor Murphy Announces Second Round of Medical Debt Relief – On October 15th, Governor Murphy announced a plan to allocate $900,000 in federal COVID-19 relief funds to eliminate medical debt for around 77,000 New Jerseyans with unpaid medical bills from Atlantic Health System, one of the state’s largest hospital systems. This will be the second round of debt relief for New Jerseyans, following an initiative that Murphy’s Office claims will erase $220 million in medical debt for over 127,000 New Jerseyans. Eligible individuals must have medical debt exceeding 5% of their income or earn less than about $60,000 annually. New Jerseyans receiving debt relief should receive notification letters starting October 17th.
Appeal Filed in Federal Ruling on New Jersey’s Assisted Suicide Law – On October 17th, a Delaware resident filed an appeal against a lawsuit challenging the residency requirement in New Jersey’s physician-assisted suicide law. A federal judge dismissed the original challenge in September, citing that the residency requirement was necessary to protect state physicians from criminal liability in other states. Around 287 New Jersey residents have died through the program since its implementation in 2019 through the end of 2023.