SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

SENATE, No. 3081

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  MAY 9, 2024

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably a Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 3081.

      This Senate committee substitute 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 substitute appropriates $44.7 million to fund the program. 

      The committee substitute 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 substitute 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 substitute 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 substitute would not apply to SDA districts.

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

FISCAL IMPACT:

      Fiscal information for this bill is currently unavailable.