NEW JERSEY – Governor Phil Murphy has signed eleven more New Jersey bills giving people tax breaks when they shop locally.
The new law allows local authorities to create a resident property tax incentive program to support local merchants.
“By encouraging people to shop locally, we are helping rebuild our main roads and small business communities,” said R-Ocean Rep. Ron Dancer. “It also provides much-needed relief for our residents, who pay the highest property taxes in the nation.”
The bill (A4806) codifies a practice that already exists in communities like Marlboro, Union Township, Voorhees, Lacey, Toms River, and others. Customers receive cash rewards when they shop at local businesses that choose to join the program.
“Small businesses provide jobs, support community organizations and causes, and create a robust economy. Unfortunately, they are disproportionately affected by coronavirus shutdowns and capacity constraints,” said Dancer.
This is how it will work:
- The measure would approve property tax incentive programs structured as “local dealer loyalty initiatives”.
- The programs would provide cash awards to city residents and employees, people who work in the community, and residents of other communities who choose to participate in the program for purchasing goods or services from companies in the city that volunteer to receive cash awards to grant.
- The program would be run by a community-designated private agency.
- Buyers would use a rewards card to make purchases from participating businesses and rewards would be calculated as a percentage of total sales.
- The company would pay the rewards earned by the customers plus a separate administration fee for the program operator.
- On June 1 of each year, the program operator sent the municipal tax collector a list of participating property owners and their rewards earned between May 1 and April 30.
- The entire dollar value would be deducted from the resident’s property tax. Participants who do not live in the community will receive a discount check.
“We have to save our small businesses and for that we have to get creative,” said Dancer. “This program can have a positive impact on our small businesses as well as on loyal local customers.”
This is what Murphy signed late Wednesday:
- A-740 / S-2846 (Johnson, Conaway, DeCroce / Gopal, Singleton) – Required by government agencies when placing orders for the purchase of items that require a power source to accommodate fuel cell powered items
- A-3384 / S-3171 (McKeon / Pou) – Various revisions of the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act; renames the law the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act
- A-4240 / S-2855 (Downey, Vainieri Huttle, Houghtaling, Coughlin / Pou, Turner) – Provides a technological enhancement to the application process for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
- A-4246 / S-3175 (Verrelli, Benson, Vainieri Huttle / Pou, Corrado) – Allows accelerated admission to mental health professions for certain individuals in a state of emergency or public health emergency
- A-4477 / S-2789 (Chiaravalloti, Conaway, Downey / Vitale, Weinberg) – Revision of the licensing, operating and reporting requirements for nursing homes
- ACS for A-4556 and 4145 / S-2611 (Karabinchak, Zwicker, Quijano / Smith, Bateman) – Asks the BPU to set up and maintain an electronic search system for public documents on their website; calls on the BPU to announce certain meetings and hold quarterly public commentary sessions
- A-4671 / S-3326 (Schaer, Swain, Tully / Ruiz, Singleton) – Urges public and local utilities to notify residential customers of available relief efforts during the 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic
- ACS for A-4805 / SCS for S-3169 (Freiman, Tully, Danielsen / Pou, Gopal) – Requests certain insurers to provide a business interruption insurance summary
- A-4806 / S-3188 (Dancer, Chiaravalloti / Pou, Singleton) – Allows municipalities to approve programs that encourage local shopping through property tax premiums; validates certain associated municipal measures
- A-4932 / S-3066 (Johnson, Murphy, Downey / Pou) – Allows limited partnerships to use alternate names
- A-5222 / S-3306 (Mukherji, Verrelli, Lopez / Diegnan, Turner) – Allows opticians to immunize against coronavirus and influenza under certain circumstances
Murphy conditionally vetoed the following bills: