A4547

An Act concerning the salaries of members of the Legislature and amending P.L.1948, c.16.

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

1. Section 1 of P.L.1948, c.16 (C.52:10A-1) is amended to read as follows:

1. a. Members of the Senate and General Assembly shall receive annually, during the term for which they shall have been elected and while they shall hold their office, compensation in the sum of $49,000 beginning with the 2002 legislative year and thereafter [and] , $82,000 beginning with the 2026 legislative year and thereafter, and $0 beginning with the 2028 legislative year and thereafter.

[The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the General Assembly, each by virtue of his office, shall receive an additional allowance, equal to 1/3 of his compensation as a member. The compensation herein provided shall be paid to each member upon his qualifying into office as such member, and the additional allowance herein provided to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the General Assembly shall be paid upon his qualifying into office as such officer.]

b. Each member of the Senate and General Assembly shall be provided with an allowance of $150,000 during each annual legislative session for member staff services. There shall be appropriated annually to the Legislature, from the general revenues of the State, the amount necessary to provide such an allowance to each member.

(cf: P.L.2023, c.349, s.2)

2. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

This bill reduces the annual salary of members of the Legislature to zero dollars beginning with the 2028 legislative year.

New Jersey residents are accustomed to hearing two familiar budgetary traditions each year. The first is the annual warning that the State faces a large structural deficit. The second is the reassurance that, despite this recurring problem, everything is somehow still under control.

Year after year, New Jersey’s fiscal outlook features the same storyline: spending that grows faster than revenues, multi-billion-dollar structural imbalances, and budget proposals that rely heavily on one-time fixes, accounting maneuvers, or optimistic projections about the future. While this approach has proven remarkably consistent, it has not proven especially effective at producing stable, balanced budgets.

At roughly the same time that these warnings about structural deficits continue to surface, the Legislature determined that its own compensation required urgent attention. In 2024, legislation was enacted to increase legislator salaries from $49,000 to $82,000 annually beginning in 2026, a 67 percent raise, apparently reflecting the extraordinary fiscal management that has resulted in persistent structural gaps.

In most workplaces, compensation is tied to outcomes. If an employee repeatedly submits budgets that do not balance, warns of looming deficits, and relies on temporary fixes to keep the books afloat, the usual response is not to provide a generous pay increase.

This bill therefore introduces a modest reform: performance-based legislative compensation.

Under the bill, the annual salary of members of the New Jersey Legislature will be set at zero dollars beginning in 2028. The delayed effective date ensures the change applies prospectively and does not affect the current legislative term, consistent with constitutional requirements.

Members of the Legislature would still be free to continue serving the public, of course. In fact, many residents might welcome the opportunity for lawmakers to demonstrate that public service, not budget deficits, is their primary motivation.

After all, if the Legislature cannot manage to balance the State’s finances, the least it can do is balance its own paycheck with its performance.

At zero dollars, the compensation will finally match the results.