SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
SENATE, No. 4654
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: JUNE 26, 2025
The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 4654.
As reported, this bill provides that whenever a public entity, as defined in the bill, is required by law, or by order or rule of any court, to publish or advertise a legal notice (which is defined to include any resolution, official proclamation, notice or advertisement of any sort, kind, or character), the public entity is to publish or advertise the legal notice on the public entity’s official Internet website. The majority of the bill’s requirements are mandatory beginning March 1, 2026, and are optional until that date. Under the bill, the public entity’s official Internet website is to be accessible and available to the public free of charge, and a direct hyperlink to legal notices published on the public entity’s official Internet website is to be conspicuously placed on the public entity’s Internet homepage.
Under the bill, a public entity is defined to include the State, any State agency, and any local government unit, district, public authority, public agency, and any other political subdivision or political body in the State. With respect to the public entities that are local government units, the bill specifies inclusion of a county, municipality, or other political subdivision of the State, or any agency, board, commission, utilities authority or other authority, or other entity thereof, or a person who is a local government unit officer or employee, which would include any sheriff or sheriff’s office.
The Secretary of State, with support from the Office of Information Technology and any other State agency the secretary deems necessary, is required to establish an Internet webpage which includes the hyperlinks to the legal notices webpage of each public entity. The legal notices hyperlink webpage is to be accessible and available to the public free of charge and be accessible by a direct hyperlink that is conspicuously placed on the Secretary of State’s homepage. Each public entity is required to submit the entity’s hyperlink to the Secretary of State and provide any updates thereto.
The bill provides that a public entity is required to maintain an Internet archive of legal notices that are no longer displayed, which are required to be kept for at least one year. A public entity is required to display a legal notice on its legal notices webpage for at least one week, or other time period as required by law, before transferring it to the archive. Under the bill, a local government unit is not required to maintain an archive until July 1, 2026.
Under the bill, a local government unit may in addition to the publication on its official website, publish or advertise a legal notice on an eligible online news publication that meets the criteria as specified in the bill.
The bill also provides that whenever a corporation, individual, or any other entity that is not a public entity is required by law or by the order or rule of any court to publish or advertise a legal notice, the corporation, individual, or other entity is to publish or advertise the legal notice on an online news publication that satisfies the eligibility requirements to function as an online news publication, as specified in the bill. For the year from January 1, 2026, a public entity is required to provide an advertisement at least twice per month in an eligible online news publication that: states that the complete text of each legal notice may be obtained or viewed by the public on the official Internet website of the public entity; and provides the hyperlink to the Secretary of State’s legal notices hyperlink Internet webpage, with exceptions provided in the bill.
Additionally, under current law, a newspaper utilized, or permitted to be utilized, by a person or public body, as defined in section 3 of the "Open Public Meetings Act," P.L.1975, c.231 (C.10:4-8), from January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024 for the purpose of complying with any requirements for issuing or publishing a public notice or legal advertisement, including, but not limited to, for providing adequate notice of a meeting, the solicitation of bids, qualifications, or proposals, or the publication of any ordinances, synopses, or summaries of official documents, is deemed eligible for the same purposes from January 1, 2025 to June 30, 2025 if the newspaper’s publication is in print or electronic format. This bill amends that law to provide that public bodies may continue using qualifying newspapers for required public notices and legal advertisements until March 1, 2026 regardless of format.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) concludes that that bill may result in increased State and local administrative costs in the first year after enactment associated with the bill’s requirement for: (1) public entities to establish an Internet webpage for the purpose of publishing legal notices and advertisements; and (2) the Secretary of State to establish an Internet webpage that links to the legal notices Internet webpage of each public entity.
The bill is also expected to result in cost savings to local government units associated with the bill’s provisions that allow local government units to publish certain notices, ordinances, resolutions, and other documents on the local government unit’s Internet website rather than in print newspapers or online news publications. A portion of these cost savings would be expected beginning no later than March 2026, and full cost savings in January 2027.