New Jersey’s annual budget process culminated this week on Wednesday, one day before the June 30the midnight deadline to send a spending bill to the Governor. Both Houses of the Legislature held marathon voting sessions, taking action on nearly 200 pieces of legislation. Both the full Senate and the General Assembly voted to pass the $50.6 billion budget and Gov. Phil Murphy signed it into the law on Thursday June 30th. Additionally, there were a number of education measures that moved. Following is a listing of the bills impacting public education in our state that had action this week. Please stay tuned in the upcoming weeks as we track which bills are signed into law by the Governor.
Signed into Law
The following bills were signed into law by Governor Murphy on Thursday, June 30, 2022:
S-2023/A-4402 (Sarlo / Cunningham / Pintor Marin) – Appropriates $50,638,729,000 in State funds and $24,082,639,850 in federal funds for the State budget for fiscal year 2022-2023. Passed by the Assembly (48-30-0), Passed by the Senate (25-15) on 6/29/2022
S-2915/A-4403 (Sarlo / Cunningham/ Pintor Marin / Wimberly) – Makes FY 2022 supplemental appropriations of $71,786,000. Passed by the Assembly (48-30-0), Passed Senate (25-15) on 6/29/2002
Passed by Both Houses and Sent to the Governor for his Consideration
The following bills were passed by both houses and sent to Governor Murphy for his consideration. NJPSA will closely monitor the track of these bills and will keep you updated as they become law. These bills are “on the Governor’s desk”, and awaiting his action:
S-2593/A-3990 (Diegnan / Corrado/Stanley/Tully) – Provides temporary one-year extension of service life of school buses for 2022-2023 school year; authorizes chief administrator to allow one-year extension in subsequent two school years. Passed by the Assembly (78-0-0), Passed Senate (40-0) on 6/29/22
S2765/A-4075/A-3229 (Beach / Ruiz/ Moen/ Lampitt) – Requires public schools to develop threat assessment teams. Passed by the Assembly (78-0-0), Passed Senate (40-0) on 6/29/22
S-2914 (Madden / Gopal) – Establishes annual sales tax holiday for certain retail sales of computers, school computer supplies, school supplies, school art supplies, school instructional materials and sport or recreational equipment. Passed by the Assembly (78-0-0), Passed Senate (40-0) on 6/29/22
S-2944/A-4162 (Sarlo / Ruiz / Freiman / Mosquera / Jaffer) – Credits $5.2 billion to “New Jersey Debt Defeasance and Prevention Fund”; appropriates $2.9 billion to NJ Schools Development Authority, NJ DOT, and NJT; and establishes process for authorizing future appropriations for debt defeasance and capital project Passed by the Senate (25-15), Passed Assembly (50-26-2) on 6/29/22
A2365 / S-1928 (Danielsen / Giblin / Jaffer / Gopal / Ruiz) – Requires school food authorities to engage in public education campaigns and develop promotional materials to educate parents and guardians of students about existing and expanding school meals program options. Passed by the Senate (40-0), Passed Assembly (76-2-0) on 6/29/2022
A-2368 / S-1677 (Coughlin / Lampitt / Jasey / Ruiz / Vitale) – Requires schools to provide free school breakfasts and lunches to students from working class, middle-income families; designated as “Working Class Families’ Anti-Hunger Act.” Passed by the Senate (39-0), Passed Assembly (73-5-0) on 6/29/22
A-3149 / S-438 (McKeon / Dancer / Benson / Smith / Codey) – Changes entity responsible for management of NJ School of Conservation to nonprofit organization, and directs DOE to request funding for center annually. Passed by the Assembly (79-0-0) on 5/26/22, Passed Senate (Passed Both Houses) (40-0) on 6/29/22
A-3196 / S-2349 (Caputo / Lampitt / Jasey / Turner / Diegnan) – Requires State Board of Education to administer New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment as field test for class of 2023. Passed by the Assembly (73-1-0) 0n 3/24/22, Passed Senate (Passed Both Houses) (40-0) on 6/29/2022
A-4224 / S-2830 (Mosquera / Freiman / Jasey / Greenstein / Beach) – Provides project grants under “Securing Our Children’s Future Fund” for career and technical education at county colleges; appropriates $19,993,837. Passed by the Assembly (76-0-1) 0n 6/16/22, Passed Senate (Passed Both Houses) (40-0) on 6/29/22
A-4225 / S-2831 (Jaffer / Conaway / Calabrese / Gopal / Greenstein) – Provides project grants under “Securing Our Children’s Future Fund” for career and technical education at county vocational school districts; appropriates $36,960,028. Passed by the Assembly (76-0-0) on 6/16/22, Passed Senate (Passed Both Houses) (40-0) on 6/29/22
S-2914/A-1522 (Moriarty / Greenwald / Lampitt) – Establishes annual sales tax holiday for certain sales of personal computers and certain sales of school supplies and equipment during first full weekend of August. Passed by the Assembly (78-0-0), Passed Senate (40-0) on 6/29/22
S-896 / A-677 / A-3562 (Turner / Greenstein / Verrelli / Jasey / Benson / Caputo) – Prohibits State Board of Education from requiring completion of performance-based assessment as condition of eligibility for certificate of eligibility with advanced standing or certificate of eligibility. Passed by the Assembly (78-0-0), Passed Senate (40-0) on 6/29/22.
Senate Session
The following bills were acted on by the State Senate on Wednesday, June 29th, 2022, but still must be approved by the General Assembly before they can be sent to the Governor:
S-50 (Ruiz) – Revises certain requirements concerning graduation proficiency test and eliminates requirement that graduation proficiency test be administered to eleventh grade students. Passed by the Senate (40-0) at their Session on 6/29/22
S-1553 (Beach) – Permits State Board of Education to authorize alternative teaching certifications. Passed by the Senate (40-0) and Referred to Assembly State and Local Government Committee on 6/29/22
S-2463 (Smith / Zwicker) – Requires school districts to provide instruction on prevention of Lyme Disease and other tick-borne diseases and to develop policy concerning removal of ticks. Passed by the Senate (40-0) and Referred to Assembly Education Committee on 6/29/2022
S-2912 (Ruiz / Diegnan) – Permits police officers to be present at public school or senior residential center being used as polling place under certain circumstances. Passed by the Senate (40-0), Referred to Assembly State and Local Government Committee 6/29/2022
If you have questions about these, or any other legislative matters, please contact Director of Government Relations Debbie Bradley dbradley@njpsa.org or Assistant Director of Government Relations Jennie Lamon at jlamon@njpsa.org at any time. To view the full text of any of the bills listed above, please visit the New Jersey Legislature’s website. Thank you for your continued support and advocacy, and for all that you do.