Legislation that significantly expands the reach of New Jersey’s child and dependent care tax credit became law Dec. 3, making taxpayers with annual incomes of up to $150,000 eligible. The credit previously had been available only to taxpayers with annual incomes of up to $60,000. The expanded credit is based on the federal credit, which the American Rescue Plan greatly expanded for tax year 2021. “The COVID-19 pandemic led many working parents—and working mothers in particular—to leave the workforce due to childcare challenges,” Murphy said in a press statement. “This legislation will help ensure affordable access to childcare, a critical part of getting hardworking New Jerseyans back into the workforce and reversing the ‘she-cession’ caused by the pandemic.” North-JerseyNews.com
New Jersey’s 12-week paid family leave program is still largely unknown and suffers from some bureaucratic hurdles and resistance from employers that make participation difficult, according to a Rutgers analysis of the law. The Rutgers Center for Women and Work praised the generosity of the program, which nearly 18 months ago was expanded from offering six weeks to 12 weeks of cash benefits as well as the expansion of caregivers who can participate. But the report found “administrative barriers include delayed payments, rejected applications, waiting for medical doctors to complete paperwork, and confusion regarding how to complete several questions on the online application.” NJ.com
Many low-income Americans find their savings dwindling or even depleted as the economic recovery from the pandemic is looking less buoyant. Over the past 18 months or so, experts have been closely tracking the multitrillion-dollar increase in what economists call “excess savings,” generally defined as the amount by which people’s cash reserves during the COVID-19 crisis exceeded what they would have normally saved. According to Moody’s Analytics, these excess savings among many working- and middle-class households could be exhausted as soon as early next year—not only reducing their financial cushions but potentially affecting the economy, since consumer spending is such a large share of activity. The New York Times
Lawmakers are making a bipartisan push to amp up a tax deduction for renters. The State Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee on Dec. 6 unanimously approved a bill increasing the amount of rent residents can deduct from their taxes. Under existing law, New Jersey’s renters can deduct 18% of their annual rent payments from their tax bill. The measure advanced in the State Senate would increase that to 30%, up to a cap of $15,000. New Jersey Monitor
Drivers who use the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway are facing a 3% toll hike on Jan. 1, 2022. A 2020 approval changed how future toll hikes are done by starting an annual process allowing yearly toll hikes up to 3%, based on certain economic indicators, starting in 2022. Under the indexing plan, Parkway barrier tolls for E-ZPass customers in passenger vehicles will increase from $1.90 to $1.96 on Jan. 1. Cash tolls are rounded to the nickel instead of the penny, meaning the cash toll at a Parkway barrier plaza will be $2. News12 New Jersey
Journal Square residents will have their say for a second time in five weeks on whom they want to represent them for the next four years as the Jersey City Ward C councilman. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. today across in a race matching incumbent Councilman Richard Boggiano, who is looking for his third term, against his challenger Kevin Bing, the former president of the Journal Square Community Association. Neither won a majority of the vote in a three-way race in the general election — Boggiano did pull in 2,175 votes to Bing’s 1,471 — so the two are squaring off head-to-head. Boggiano joined the slate of Mayor Steve Fulop’s council allies for this election after winning two previous elections in runoffs. The Jersey Journal
With the first recorded confirmed case of the Omicron variant, Gov. Phil Murphy opined that it was still too early to tell what the effect of the new coronavirus strain will be in New Jersey. The first confirmed test in the Garden State was that of a fully vaccinated adult female, a Georgia resident who had recently traveled to South Africa. Since testing positive on Nov. 28, the woman has remained in isolation with moderate symptoms and is now recovering. “As we were saying for the past week, we just assumed it was in our state,” the governor said in comments after a ceremony in Carteret. “My gut tells me this is the first of many to come. Folks need to be vigilant, wearing (their) masks, getting vaccinated, getting boosted. Because so far at least, there’s no evidence that lineup is not working.” North-JerseyNews.com
New Jersey State Police stepped up enforcement Dec. 6 of a requirement that Statehouse visitors show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test. Troopers stood guard at entrances around the statehouse complex, including little-used doorways where no state police presence is typically present. Troopers routed visitors—even those with statehouse badges who work in the complex—to a single entrance where they were directed to show vaccination proof and undergo a temperature screening. Later in the day, they put up large orange barriers and put up new signs saying that certain entrances were for lawmakers only, or lawmakers and staff only. New Jersey Globe
New York City will require all private-sector workers be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, in what Mayor Bill de Blasio described as a first in the nation measure. The mandate, which applies to employees working in person, will go into effect Dec. 27 just days before a new mayor takes office and as a federal vaccine requirement for many private-sector employees remains entangled in a court battle. About 184,000 businesses in the city will be affected. The Wall Street Journal
A U.S. Senate committee recently passed a bill to protect the personal information of judges in response to the shooting of a federal judge’s child last year in New Jersey. Co-authored by Sens. Cory Booker and Bob Menendez, the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act of 2021, named for the son of U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas who was murdered during the violent home invasion last year, would safeguard the personally identifiable information of federal judges and their immediate families that could leave them vulnerable to potential threats. “Today, Mark and I saw the Judiciary Committee come together in agreement on the need for this bill, the need to protect our judiciary, the need to protect our democracy” said Judge Salas after the vote, her voice cracking at times. “I stand here in the name of Daniel, much work needs to be done…but we will make sure we can do everything in our power to avoid a tragedy like this happening again.” North-JerseyNews.com
There’s a risk that four of Atlantic City’s nine casinos could close if changes aren’t made to a 2016 law recalculating the industry’s tax payments, according to Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3). Sweeney didn’t identify which casinos are at risk if the “payment in lieu of taxes” (PILOT) law isn’t updated in a way that would exempt revenue from sports betting and online gaming from the calculation of what is owed. The bill would reduce the PILOT payments by around one-third, or $55 million, cutting the bills for some casinos while raising them for others. Proposed changes have cleared a couple of Senate committees since the election, but the Assembly version of the plan hasn’t been taken up and isn’t listed for consideration when the committee to which the bill was referred meets Dec. 9. NJ1015.com
State officials announced a Request for Expressions of Interest for an autonomous vehicles project in Trenton. The MOVES—Mobility & Opportunity: Vehicles Equity System—project being developed by the Governor’s Office, NJDOT, the city of Trenton and Princeton University is the first large-scale urban transit system in the country to be based entirely on self-driving shuttles, aiming to deploy 100 autonomous vehicles throughout the state capital in a system state officials hope will provide safe, equitable, affordable and sustainable high-quality mobility. ROI-NJ.com
Trenton lawmakers approved bills that could undermine Gov. Phil Murphy’s goal to transition away from fossil fuels. The Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee unanimously released a bill (S-4133) Dec. 6 that would prohibit state agencies from enacting policies that mandate electric heating systems or electric water heating systems to replace natural gas systems. Later in the day, the Assembly Telecommunications and Utility Committee released a bill (A-5655) that would require the state Board of Public Utilities to establish a program to promote renewable natural gas. Several gas utilities in the state are exploring using what the industry calls renewable natural gas or hydrogen to heat homes in the future as natural gas is phased out. NJ Spotlight News
Cresskill parents will be taking their fight to Trenton to try to get the governor’s office to speed up the return of 1,000 students to their flood-damaged school. A parents group called Get Cresskill Kids Back to School has organized a rally outside the governor’s office Dec. 10 to have grant a waiver to a state law preventing districts from spending so much money on unplanned expenses without going through proper channels. An architect and engineer estimated that $19 million in damage was done when the remnants of Hurricane Ida on Sept. 1 caused catastrophic flooding — more than half the district’s normal operating budget. The district is out to bid for bonds and loan notes from banks. The Record
The Sussex County Commissioners are expected to give their approval to a national settlement that holds drug manufacturers and distributors responsible for the opioid epidemic. The proposed resolution before the board states the distributors have agreed to pay up to $21 billion over 18 years while manufacturer Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies will pay up to $5 billion within nine years, for a total of $26 billion. Approximately $22.7 billion is earmarked for use by participating states and subdivisions to remediate and abate the impacts of the opioid crisis and includes additional safeguards to prevent diversion of prescription opioids. New Jersey Herald
And finally…As the nation observes the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the United States into World War II, the military said this week that a six-year project to identify those killed on the Oklahoma had matched human remains from the ship with the names of 355 sailors and Marines. The New York Times
