Tags
Housing for Veterans, Local Unit Agreements, Lyft, Property Assessment, School Employees' Health Benefits Program, State Health Benefits Program, Uber, Urban Enterprise Zones
The Governor recently took action on various pieces of legislation, including the following:
- The Governor conditionally vetoed A-4189/S-2670, regarding Urban Enterprise Zones (UEZs). This bill would have extended, for two years, UEZ authorization in municipalities where the program was scheduled to sunset at the end of 2016. (Those municipalities are Bridgeton, Camden, Newark, Plainfield and Trenton.) The remaining zones do not expire for a number of years. While this bill is a conditional veto, it is effectively a veto since the Governor struck the language that would have extended these 5 zones on a short term basis. We do not expect the Legislature to act on the Governor’s recommendations.
The Governor also signed the following bills into law:
- PL. 2017, c. 16 requires that the annual notice of assessment on property to contain bolded notice of filing deadline for appeal. This legislation took effect on February 10, 2017.
- PL. 2017, c.19 requires the Department of Community Affairs to establish rules and regulations to provide affordable housing preference to homeless veterans, disabled veterans and family members who are the primary caregiver to disabled veterans residing with them, in a municipal or county housing authority project. All applicants for the housing preference will also be required to meet the income requirements for admission to the housing project. Priority for the preference will be given to applicants as follows: (1) homeless veterans shall receive first priority; (2) disabled veterans shall receive second priority; and (3) family members who are the primary residential caregivers to disabled veterans residing with them shall receive third priority. This legislation will take effect May 1, 2017.
- PL. 2017, c. 21 permits local units to enter into a shared service agreement with a federal military base for services that the local unit involved in the agreement is empowered to provide those services within its own jurisdiction. Also the services must be permitted by 10 U.S.C. s.2679. The law shall not be construed to impact existing Federal or State civil service laws and if there is a conflict regarding the content and duration of such agreements, federal law will control. The League supported this legislation that took effect on February 10, 2017.
- PL. 2017, c. 26 which preempts municipal regulation of some taxi services such as Uber and Lyft. This new law unnecessarily exempts ride for hire services from local regulation. We had asked the Governor to conditionally veto the bill, so as to delete Section 26.
- PL. 2017, c. 28 which requires health insurance carriers, and the State Health Benefits Program and the School Employees’ Health Benefits Program, to adhere to certain coverage requirements for treatment of substance use disorders. The bill also places certain restrictions on the prescription of opioids, and requires certain notifications when prescribing Schedule II controlled dangerous substances used to treat chronic or acute pain. The bill also requires certain health care professionals to receive training on topics related to prescription opioid drugs.
Contacts:
Michael Cerra, Assistant Executive Director, mcerra@njslom.org, 609-695-3481 x120;
Jon Moran, Senior Legislative Analyst, jmoran@njslom.org, 609-695-3481 x121;
Lori Buckelew, Senior Legislative Analyst, lbuckelew@njslom.org, 609- 695-3481, x112.