Affordable Housing Reform Bills Pass Assembly
Earlier this week in Trenton, the State Assembly passed six bills aimed at reforming, supporting and streamlining the state’s affordable housing system and process.
Included in the package is a landmark measure, Assembly Bill 4, which would set the course for future enforcement of the Mount Laurel Doctrine, the state’s constitutional requirement for towns to provide a fair share of affordable housing.
The six bills include:
- A4 – Reforms municipal responsibilities concerning provisions of affordable housing and abolish the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH). The measure aims to give municipalities greater flexibility and input while reducing costly delays and minimizing litigation.
- Assembly Bill 1495 – Exempts receipts from sales of material, supplies and services for certain affordable housing projects from sales and use tax.
- Assembly Bill 2296 – Permits municipalities to authorize municipal clerk to submit written statements concerning affordable housing.
- Assembly Bill 2390 – Requires municipalities in compliance with affordable housing obligations be provided priority considering for certain state grants and assistance.
- Assembly Bill 3128 – Authorizes the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency to issue tax credits for certain purposes.
- Assembly Bill 3337 – Allows projects supported by the state or municipal affordable housing trust fund to be exempt from property tax and to instead contribute to municipal services by making payments in lieu of taxation.
“We have a moral obligation to make sure everyone can find affordable housing in our state,” said Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-19th District and a sponsor of A4. According to Coughlin, the measure addresses one of the biggest affordability problems in our state. “This bill will help our residents stay in the Garden State.”
The legislative package still needs to clear the Senate. If it does, it will head to Governor Phil Murphy’s desk to be signed into law.
Bipartisan Workgroup Warns of Multibillion-Dollar Gaps in Future State Budgets
In a report released last week, a bi-partisan state budget workgroup assembled by the Steve Sweeney Center for Public Policy at Rowan University suggests a series of multibillion-dollar budget gaps are looming under existing tax and spending policies.
If the group’s forecasts hold, without hiking taxes, the state would likely spend an estimated $8 billion budget surplus within a matter of years or have to backtrack on major funding commitments to high-profile items like additional property-tax relief for seniors.
“Even under the most optimistic scenario, state revenues will fall $1.9 billion to $3.1 billion short annually,” according to the report.
While the group offered up “optimistic” and “pessimistic” versions of its forecasts, it determined there is an overall “80% likelihood that state revenues will fall $3.2 billion to $7.1 billion short of the amount needed to continue state programs and state aid at current service levels each budget year from FY2025 to FY2028” – all before lawmakers make any of their own additions to the budget through discretionary spending.
Baraka to Run for Governor in 2025
Three-term Newark Mayor Ras Baraka announced that he will run for governor in 2025, becoming the third Democrat to join the race to succeed term-limited Governor Phil Murphy.
Baraka launched his campaign in Trenton at a Black History Month event honoring Divine 9 organizations at the War Memorial’s Patriots Theater.
The 53-year-old Baraka is serving his third term as mayor of the state’s largest city. If elected, he will become the state’s first Black governor.
A former high school principal, he served two stints on the Newark City Council before winning a hotly-contested race for mayor in 2014. He coasted to landslide re-election victories in 2018 and 2022. His late father, Amiri Baraka, was a prominent poet and civil rights leader in Newark.
He joins Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and former Senate President Steve Sweeney in the 2025 primary field.
Kim defeats Murphy in Monmouth County Democratic Convention
Congressman Andy Kim cruised to victory by a wide margin in New Jersey’s first Democratic convention in the US Senate Primary to replace Sen. Bob Menendez, handing First Lady Tammy Murphy a defeat in her home county.
Murphy has been the presumed frontrunner because of her high-profile status as First Lady, her vast fundraising capabilities and through the support she has received from county leaders in the state’s more prominent Democratic-leaning areas of the state.
Kim won the Monmouth County Democratic Convention in a blowout – winning 56.9% of the vote. Murphy won 38.8% while another candidate, progressive labor activist Patricia Campos-Medina won 4.2% out of the 466 total votes cast.
“It shows there’s nothing inevitable about this race,” Kim said. “There’s nothing inevitable. There’s no sense anybody is destined to be able to win this thing. It confirmed what I’ve always thought – we’re the campaign that has momentum.”
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