S3225

An Act amending the Fiscal Year 2023 annual appropriations act, P.L.2022, c.49.

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. The following language provisions in section 1 of P.L.2022, c.49, the annual appropriations act for State fiscal year 2023, are amended to read as follows:

FEDERAL FUNDS

Notwithstanding the provisions of any law or regulation to the contrary, funding allocated to the State from the federal "Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund" (SFRF) established pursuant to the federal "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021," Pub. L. 117 2, and any other similar type of federal law that may be hereafter enacted, are appropriated and are subject to the following conditions:

a. with regard to individual items of appropriation in this act, that are eligible for SFRF funding, as determined by the Executive Director of the Governor's Disaster Recovery Office, such eligible items may be paid for using SFRF funds, subject to the approval of the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting;

b. with regard to additional programs, projects, and uses of SFRF funds, moneys appropriated by this provision shall be used solely to pay for costs authorized to be paid pursuant to SFRF, which may include, but shall not be limited to, support for the public health response to the COVID 19 Pandemic and the public health emergency and economic distress resulting therefrom; grants to improve ventilation in school facilities and private businesses; responses to the negative economic impacts of the public health emergency, including rent, mortgage, or utility assistance to households; aid to businesses in impacted industries such as tourism, travel, and hospitality; costs of programs to address health disparities including through the remediation of lead hazards; water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure; costs to address educational disparities; costs to promote healthy childhood environments, including the creation of a child care revitalization fund; support for COVID 19 response, recovery, and improvements at health care facilities and hospitals; and costs to support local governments impacted by the pandemic. The determination of eligibility of the specific programs, projects, and uses recommended to be funded by this appropriation shall be made by the Executive Director of the Governor's Disaster Recovery Office, who shall establish an application and review process based on Statewide need, in compliance with federal eligibility requirements, subject to the approval of the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting. Funding recommendations shall be subject to the approval of the Joint Budget Oversight Committee (JBOC)[; provided, however, there is appropriated $300,000,000 from federal funds provided to the State of New Jersey pursuant to the SFRF, an amount not to exceed $60 million of which may be directly allocated on a one time basis to pandemic related programs without JBOC approval and not subject to N.J.S.A. 52:14 34.4, and the remainder of which may be directly allocated to pandemic related programs not to exceed $20,000,000 for each such allocation, without JBOC approval and not subject to N.J.S.A.52:14 34.4, subject to SFRF eligibility rules as determined by the Executive Director of the Governor's Disaster Recovery Office, subject to the approval of the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting. Notice shall be provided to JBOC with respect to each such appropriation. With respect to recommended appropriations of more than $20,000,000, except the one time $60,000,000 allocation authorized herein, and with respect to appropriations exceeding a total of $300,000,000, approval of the Joint Budget Oversight Committee shall be required; provided, however, that all such] . All recommended appropriations submitted by the Executive Director of the Governor's Recovery Office shall be considered by JBOC at a meeting which shall occur not less frequently than quarterly, with the first quarter of the fiscal year beginning on July 1 and ending on September 30. JBOC shall meet during the third month of the first quarter of the fiscal year. In the event that JBOC fails to meet during a given quarter, any recommendation submitted to JBOC more than 45 days prior to the last day of the quarter shall be deemed approved. Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to limit the ability of JBOC to meet more than once quarterly.

c. subject to the approval of the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting, appropriations shall include necessary administrative costs of the respective agencies in administering the individual programs and for the SFRF grants management costs incurred by the Department of Community Affairs, Division of Disaster Recovery & Mitigation, as the State's designated grants manager, in its oversight of the entire portfolio of funds, consistent with SFRF requirements. The administrative costs authorized in this subparagraph for an individual program shall be no more than 5 percent of the cost of that program. In the event that the administrative costs of the agencies and the division administering the programs and projects funded by the SFRF are not permitted to be paid from the federal monies received by the State, there are appropriated from the General Fund such additional sums as are required, subject to the limitations contained in this subparagraph and subject to the approval of the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting and subject to the approval of the Joint Budget Oversight Committee.

2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply retroactively to the date of enactment of P.L.2022, c.49.

STATEMENT

This bill amends the Fiscal Year 2023 annual appropriations act to require certain amounts of "Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund" (SFRF) funding that currently may be directly allocated by the Executive Director of the Governor's Disaster Recovery Office without the approval of the Joint Budget Oversight Committee (JBOC) to now be subject to JBOC approval.

A language provision in the Fiscal Year 2023 annual appropriations act appropriated $300 million from New Jersey’s portion of federal assistance from the SFRF for pandemic-related programs. From the $300 million, the Executive Director of the Governor’s Disaster Recovery Office is authorized to make a one-time allocation of up to $60 million, and additional allocations not to exceed $20 million, for pandemic-related programs. The language provision allows these funds to be allocated without JBOC approval.

According to the sponsor, although the New Jersey Constitution requires the entire Legislature to endorse spending, the current State appropriations act delegates to the Governor unilateral authority to make spending decisions with respect to the aforementioned $300 million of SFRF funding. Although these federal funds were provided to address hardships created by the COVID-19 pandemic and to rebuild the economy, the sponsor believes that the Governor has abused the one-sided appropriation authority that the Fiscal Year 2023 annual appropriations act consigned to him. According to the sponsor, some of the Governor’s spending of federal money supplants ordinary State budget costs, some of his appropriations advance an extreme social agenda that has little or nothing to do with the pandemic, and other appropriations only benefit the Governor and his key staff.

According to the sponsor, some examples of abuses include: providing convicted criminals departing prison with cash payments that range from $2,000 to $4,000; purchasing new sport utility vehicles (SUVs) for the use of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and other administrative staff; and establishing another bureaucracy to enforce a new State law unrelated to COVID that requires landlords to offer tenancy to convicted criminals – even if those criminals are deemed at risk for recidivism by the State’s Parole Board and will be housed in multiple dwelling structures that also house uniquely vulnerable citizens. According to the sponsor, there are many other examples of the Governor abusing his unilateral authority to appropriate federal money meant to address COVID hardships caused by the virus and to rebuild the economy.

The sponsor believes that almost $1 billion of block grants under a similar block grant provided pursuant to the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was laundered into the State budget by supplanting $1 billion of previously budgeted State dollars for ordinary operating expenses. In addition, the sponsor believes that tens of millions of dollars were allocated to make interest payments on needless borrowing to meet operating expenses.

According to the sponsor, these brazen abuses of spending authority have become a pattern. The sponsor believes that the Governor’s recent spending decisions have done nothing to help people suffering from unnecessary executive orders that ruined businesses and damaged schools, nor have his spending decisions done anything to correct mismanagement at State-run nursing homes or to reform nursing home regulatory systems that killed thousands of senior citizens.

According to the sponsor, this bill ends the Governor’s unilateral authority to further squander federal resources – a power that was recklessly delegated to him without any meaningful legislative oversight. The sponsor believes that the bill will restore the appropriate process of budgeting taxpayer dollars whereby the Governor may propose initiatives, but final decisions will rest with the citizenry though their elected representatives – and only after appropriate transparency and a public vetting process.