New Jersey Home Page (Executive) | NJ Legislature | NJ Judiciary

Constitutional Amendment

Regarding Unfunded Mandates and Creation of the Council on Local Mandates
Article VIII, Section II, paragraph 5 added effective December 7, 1995

5. (a) With respect to any provision of a law enacted on and after January 17, 1996, and with respect to any rule or regulation issued pursuant to a law originally adopted after July 1, 1996, and except as otherwise provided herein, any provision of such law, or of such rule or regulation issued pursuant to a law, which is determined in accordance with this paragraph to be an unfunded mandate upon boards of education, counties, or municipalities because it does not authorize resources, other than the property tax, to offset the additional direct expenditures required for the implementation of the law or rule or regulation, shall, upon such determination cease to be mandatory in its effect and expire. A law or rule or regulation issued pursuant to a law that is determined to be an unfunded mandate shall not be considered to establish a standard of care for the purpose of civil liability.

(b) The Legislature shall create by law a Council on Local Mandates. The Council shall resolve any dispute regarding whether a law or rule or regulation issued pursuant to a law constitutes an unfunded mandate. The Council shall consist of nine public members appointed as follows: four members to be appointed by the Governor; one member to be appointed by the President of the Senate; one member to be appointed by the Speaker of the General Assembly; one member to be appointed by the minority leader of the Senate; one member to be appointed by the minority leader of the General Assembly; and one member to be appointed by the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. Of the members appointed by the Governor, at least two shall be appointed from a list of six willing nominees submitted by the chairman of the political party whose candidate for Governor received the second largest number of votes at the most recent gubernatorial general election. The decisions of the Council shall be political and not judicial determinations.

(c) Notwithstanding anything in this paragraph to the contrary, the following categories of laws or rules or regulations issued pursuant to a law, shall not be considered unfunded mandates:

• (1) those which are required to comply with federal laws or rules or to meet eligibility standards for federal entitlements;
• (2) those which are imposed on both government and non-government entities in the same or substantially similar circumstances;
• (3) those which repeal, revise or ease an existing requirement or mandate or which reapportion the costs of activities between boards of education, counties, and municipalities;
(4) those which stem from failure to comply with previously enacted laws or rules or regulations issued pursuant to a law;
• (5) those which implement the provisions of this Constitution; and
• (6) laws which are enacted after a public hearing, held after public notice that unfunded mandates will be considered, for which a fiscal analysis is available at the time of the public hearing and which, in addition to complying with all other constitutional requirements with regard to the enactment of laws, are passed by 3/4 affirmative vote of the members of each House of the Legislature.