Bill Text: NJ S4318 | 2026-2027 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Appropriates funds to support increases in tax levy resulting from health care costs in certain school districts.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)
Status: (Introduced) 2026-05-21 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Education Committee [S4318 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2026-S4318-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator CARMEN F. AMATO, JR.
District 9 (Ocean)
SYNOPSIS
Appropriates funds to support increases in tax levy resulting from health care costs in certain school districts.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act appropriating funds to support health care cost increases in certain school districts.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. There is appropriated from the Property Tax Relief Fund such amounts, not to exceed $50,000,000 as determined by the Commissioner of Education and subject to the approval of the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting, as necessary to support a qualifying school district's increase to the adjusted tax levy for the 2026-2027 school year that results from implementing the allowable adjustment to the tax levy for increases in health care costs pursuant to paragraph (1) of subsection d. of section 3 of P.L.2007, c.62 (C.18A:7F-38). Funds received by a qualifying school district pursuant to this section shall be the product of the amount of funds, not to exceed $50,000,000, determined to be available for the purposes of this section and the district's proportionate share of the Statewide total increase in health care costs among all school districts.
b. As used in this section, "qualifying school district" means a school district with an adjusted tax levy in the 2026-2027 school year that has increased by more than 9.9 percent of the adjusted tax levy implemented for the district in the 2024-2025 school year.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill authorizes the appropriation of funds, not to exceed $50 million, to support increases in certain school districts' property tax levies that result from increased health care costs.
School districts that qualify for funds under the bill are those with an adjusted property tax levy in the 2026-2027 school year that has increased by more than 9.9 percent of the adjusted tax levy implemented for the district in the 2024-2025 school year. The amount of funds a qualifying school district would receive under the bill will be equal to the product of the amount of funds available for the purposes of the bill and the qualifying district's proportionate share of the Statewide total increase in health care costs among all school districts.
Pursuant to current law, a school district may increase its adjusted tax levy, without voter approval, for the portion of actual increases in health care costs that exceeds two percent of the prior year's total health care costs. This allowable increase to the property tax levy, however, is limited to the average percentage increase of the State Health Benefits Program, as determined annually by the Division of Pensions and Benefits in the Department of the Treasury. For the 2026-2027 school year, the allowable adjustment for health care costs, based on increases in the State Health Benefits Program, is a staggering 29.9 percent. This bill seeks to alleviate the cost pressures that result from this unusually high health care cost increase, with a specific focus on those districts that have already had to burden their taxpayers with steadily increasing tax levies over the past two years.
