Bill > A4613

Introduced Session

This bill requires certain State departments, the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA), the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA), and the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to determine whether the State has the authority, under State and federal law, to increase the income eligibility standards for various public assistance, school nutrition, and higher education student financial assistance programs, and to raise the income eligibility standards for each program for which such State authority exists. The bill directs the Executive Directors of the HESAA and the NJHMFA, the President of the BPU, and the Commissioners of Agriculture, Community Affairs, and Human Services, to consider, as part of this programmatic review, whether any assistance program, funded in whole or in part by a federal block grant, will have sufficient federal resources to support additional participants who become newly-eligible subsequent to an increase in the program's income eligibility standards. Among the programs that will be included in the review are: the Medicaid and NJ FamilyCare programs, the State Rental Assistance Program, the federal School Breakfast program, the tuition aid grant program, and the payment assistance for gas and electric initiative. If a department, the HESAA, the NJHMFA, or the BPU determines that the State has the authority to raise income eligibility standards for an assistance program and, for programs funded by federal resources, sufficient funding is available to support additional program participants, the department, the HESAA, the NJHMFA, or the BPU will increase the program's income eligibility standards by an amount equal to the total percentage increase in the State minimum wage between January 1, 2019 and the bill's effective date, plus a cost of living adjustment in an amount equal to the cost of living adjustment for federal Social Security benefits for the calendar year in which the bill becomes effective. The bill appropriates from the General Fund to the HESAA, the NJHMFA, the BPU, and each of the Departments of Agriculture, Community Affairs, and Human Services, such sums as are necessary to implement the requirements under the bill. It is the sponsor's intent to ensure that the State's minimum wage earners retain eligibility for important public assistance and higher education student financial assistance programs subsequent to the statutory increases in the State minimum wage. Although minimum wage earners are now compensated at a higher rate than in 2019, recent inflationary pressures have made it increasingly difficult for these workers to afford such essentials as food, clothing, and rent. The sponsor believes that the State must raise the income eligibility standards for essential public assistance, school nutrition, and higher education student financial assistance programs so that hard-working minimum wage earners can provide for their families.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Reginald Atkins (D)*,  Garnet Hall (D)*,  Shanique Speight (D)*, 

Reported and Referred to Assembly Oversight, Reform and Federal Relations Committee (on 05/08/2025)

Official Document