ASSEMBLY STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 5308

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: DECEMBER 15, 2025

      The Assembly State and Local Government Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 5308.

This bill requires the Director of the Division of Local Government Services (division) in the Department of Community Affairs to establish a local government unit management enhancement review grant program.  The purpose of the program is to provide grants to local government units to contract with management enhancement review consultants, as defined in the bill, to conduct local government unit efficiency reviews and to make recommendations to streamline operations and reduce costs.  

     Under the bill, to participate in the program, a local government is required to submit an application to the division detailing the local government unit’s proposed plans for the grant funding, including, but not limited to:

· the amount of grant funding being sought by the local government unit;

· a description of how the grant funding will be used to conduct an efficiency review; and

· the proposed sources of matching funding to be used by the local government unit to conduct the efficiency review.

     Under the bill, after reviewing the applications, the Director of the division is required to select local government units to receive a management enhancement review grant.  In selecting grant recipients, the director is to consider factors specified in the bill.  The maximum grant award under the program is $150,000 for a county-based local government unit and $100,000 for a municipal-based local government unit.  The bill requires a local government unit that receives a grant under the program to contribute 25 percent of the grant award amount to the management enhancement review.

     Within one year of receiving a grant, each participating local government unit is required to submit a report to the director detailing:

· the expenditures of the grant funds under the program;

· the specific shared services, operating efficiencies, or improved delivery of services achieved as a result of the management enhancement review; and

· the specific cost savings achieved as a result of the shared services, operating efficiencies, or improved delivery of services.

     The director is required to compile the reports submitted for inclusion in a comparative profile of the participating local government units and to post the profile for public inspection on the division’s Internet website in an easily accessible location.

     The bill appropriates $1.5 million from the General Fund to the division to provide grants to local government units to effectuate the purposes of the bill.