Bill Text: NJ A4555 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires DOLWD to provide assistance and education to small businesses in special improvement districts; establishes outreach campaign.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-06-13 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Labor Committee [A4555 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A4555-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman SHAVONDA E. SUMTER
District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)
Assemblywoman SHANIQUE SPEIGHT
District 29 (Essex and Hudson)
SYNOPSIS
Requires DOLWD to provide assistance and education to small businesses in special improvement districts; establishes outreach campaign.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning assistance to small businesses in special improvement districts and supplementing Title 34 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. The Department of Labor and Workforce Development, in consultation with the Department of the Treasury, shall:
(1) identify small businesses that are located in special improvement districts throughout the State; and
(2) notify each identified business of the business's location within a special improvement district and of certain benefits that may be available to businesses located within a special improvement district.
b. The commissioner, in consultation with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Department of Environmental Protection, the Business Action Center in the Department of State, shall create and implement an outreach program to inform small businesses that are located in special improvement districts about key issues that small businesses may face including, but not limited to:
(1) small business grants and loans;
(2) State wage, benefit and tax laws; and
(3) climate change resiliency.
The program shall develop and distribute written materials to small businesses which are located in special improvement districts, and shall engage in regular outreach to these businesses to notify and educate small businesses on the key issues that small businesses may face, including but not limited to the issues identified in this subsection.
c. As used in this act:
"Commissioner" means Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development.
"Small business" means any business which has its principal place of business in this State, is independently owned and operated, and employs the equivalent of fewer than 50 full-time employees.
"Special improvement district" means an area within a municipality designated by municipal ordinance as an area in which a special assessment on property within the district shall be imposed for the purposes of promoting the economic and general welfare of the district and the municipality. The municipal ordinance may exempt residential properties, residential portions of mixed use properties, parcels with any number of residential units, or vacant properties located within the district from special assessment.
"State wage, benefit and tax laws" means:
(1) P.L.1965, c.173 (C.34:11-4.1 et seq.);
(2) The "New Jersey Prevailing Wage Act," P.L.1963, c.150 (C.34:11-56.25 et seq.);
(3) The "New Jersey State Wage and Hour Law," P.L.1966, c.113 (C.34:11-56a et seq.);
(4) The workers' compensation law, R.S.34:15-1 et seq.;
(5) The "unemployment compensation law," R.S.43:21-1 et seq.;
(6) The "Temporary Disability Benefits Law," P.L.1948, c.110 (C.43:21-25 et al.);
(7) P.L.2008, c.17 (C.43:21-39.1 et al.);
(8) The "New Jersey Gross Income Tax Act," N.J.S.54A:1-1 et seq.; and
(9) P.L.2018, c.10 (C.34:11D-1 et seq.).
2. This act shall take effect on the first day of the fourth month next following the date of enactment, except that the commissioner may take anticipatory administrative action in advance as shall be necessary for the implementation of this act.
STATEMENT
This bill requires the Department of Labor and Workforce Development to identify small businesses that are located in special improvement districts throughout the State for the purpose of notifying each small business of the business's location within a special improvement district and of certain benefits that are available to businesses within a special improvement district. Further, the bill requires the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development, in consultation with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Department of Environmental Protection, the Business Action Center in the Department of State, to create and implement an outreach program to inform small businesses which are located in special improvement districts about key issues that small businesses might face including, but not limited to:
(1) small business grants and loans;
(2) State wage, benefit and tax laws; and
(3) climate change resiliency.
The program will develop and distribute written materials to small businesses which are located in special improvement districts, and will engage in regular outreach to these businesses to notify and educate small businesses on the key issues that small businesses may face.
