Lawmakers left 70 bills for Sherrill to consider
Governor may choose to sign or veto measures
By: Katie Sobko
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... The New Jersey Legislature is in recess - presumably until the leaves start to change in the fall. As lawmakers departed Trenton for a prolonged absence, they left 70 pieces of legislation for Governor Mikie Sherrill to sign - or veto.
....
As tradition dictates, both chambers held sessions on the afternoon of June 30 [2026] and handed a fiscal year 2027 state budget over for consideration just hours before the deadline for her to sign it and avoid a state government shutdown. she signed that - as well as a supplemental budget bill adding north of $358 million to the fiscal year 2026 as it was set to end.
..... Sherrill also signed 13 other bills that will do things such as increase the child tax credit for the next three years, establish a fee on certain employers with staffers who receive health benefits coverage through the state Medicaid program, and regulate the information that data brokers and collectors can share.
..... In the week since the session, Sherrill signed the John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act of New Jersey which is geared toward strengthening vote rights by expanding access, increasing protection against suppression and discrimination at the polls, and increase ballot language options.
..... The governor also signed a bill that will protect utility ratepayers from increases due to data centers by creating a new utility are structure for data centers, requiring them to bring their own new clean energy and to pay for necessary grid upgrades.
What's next for Sherrill? The NJ Legislature?
..... There are about 70 bills on Sherrill's desk, though, ranging from creating new license plate designs and renaming highways to keeping toxic chemicals out of diapers and researching the impact of social media on kids.
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She will have a few weeks to decide on whether she wants to sign or veto the bills, but they can't sit forever.
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The state constitution says bills that sit on the governor's desk for 45 days become law when the legislative chamber in which they started reconvenes.
..... Marc Pfeiffer, assistant director of the Bloustein Local Government Research Center at Rutgers University, said it's not unusual to see the Legislature wait until just before a recess to move through a large number of bills and leave them for the governor to consider while they're on a break.
..... Now it's up to the governor's counsel and policy advisers to review the bills and make recommendations. some of the bills were introduced months ago and considered at lengthy committee hearings, but others were interdicted at the end of June [2026] and could have been amended with little public input.
..... "A good never of the bills will have just been introduced in the last 10 days of June. [2026] the hearings may have been very perfunctory," Pfeiffer said. ""So what you have now is bills that went through at the last minute that the governor's office is going to be lobbed."
..... No one in the Legislature is on the ballot this year, [2026]
so there may not be a rush for action on any specific bills from lawmakers who are on their way out the door.
..... Senate President Nick Scutari sponsored legislation that would make psilocybin legal in certain medicinal situations. It was discussed in committee last session, and he said in June [2026] that it was "in the hopper" and that he was "working on it."
..... The Polluters Pay to Make New Jersey Affordable bill, which generated buzz, cleared committee but has not yet been considered on the floor, as lawmakers consider amendments after an outcry from business groups.
..... Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email:sobko@northjersey.com