SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

ASSEMBLY, No. 4161

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  MAY 9, 2024

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 4161 ACS, with committee amendments.

      As amended, this bill establishes in the Department of Education a Stabilized School Budget Aid Grant Program.  The purpose of the program is to provide aid grants to eligible school districts equal to 45 percent of the amount of the school districts’ State school aid reductions, as calculated under current law for the 2024-2025 school year.  The amended bill appropriates $44.7 million to fund the program. 

      The amended bill also permits school districts, which experienced reductions in State school aid in the 2024-2025 school year compared to the 2020-2021 school year, to request certain increases in their adjusted property tax levies above the amounts permitted under current law, without the approval of the voters of the school district or the board of school estimate, as applicable.  The maximum amount of the adjusted tax levy increase under the amended bill is the difference between the amount of State school aid allocated to a school district in the 2020-2021 school year and the amount of State school aid allocated to the district in the 2024-2025 school year. However, the amended bill prohibits a school district from increasing its adjusted tax levy by more than 9.9 percent of the prior year’s tax levy.  The ability to increase the adjusted tax levy pursuant to the provisions of the amended bill would not apply to SDA districts.

      As amended and reported by the committee, Assembly Bill No. 4161 (ACS) is identical to the committee substitute for Senate Bill No. 3081, which was also reported by the committee on this date.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to:

· provide that the amount of an aid grant distributed to an eligible school district under the Stabilized School Budget Aid Grant Program is equal to 45 percent, as opposed to two-thirds, of the school district’s proposed State school aid reduction amount for the 2024-2025 school year;

· adjust the bill’s appropriation amount to $44,698,846, to reflect that eligible school districts would receive aid grants equal to 45 percent of the proposed State school aid reductions;

· remove the prohibition on an eligible school district from reducing its number of school district employees as well as other provisions of the bill that provided the Commissioner of Education the ability to approve an eligible school district’s reduction in the total number of school district employees due to an anticipated decline in enrollment;

· remove provisions of the bill permitting an eligible school district to, without the approval of the voters of the district or the board of school estimate as applicable, increase its adjusted tax levy by: 1) up to one-third of the amount of the district’s proposed State school aid reduction; and 2) the amount of the school district’s net reduction in State school aid during the 2020-2021 through 2023-2024 school years;

· provide that any school district, which experiences a reduction in State school aid during the 2024-2025 school year compared to the 2020-2021 school year, may increase its adjusted tax levy by no more than the lesser of the amount of the school district’s reduction or 9.9 percent of the prebudget year adjusted tax levy; and

· modify the bill’s effective date to specify that aid grants provided under the bill are to be provided in the 2024-2025 school year. 

FISCAL IMPACT:

      Fiscal information for this bill is currently unavailable.