Lawmakers tweak ANCHOR, StayNJ tax credit programs
By: Katie Sobko
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... The state tax program that aims to keep seniors in New Jersey during their golden years may be undergoing a few tweaks - even as it is still years away form being implemented.
....
A bill that would amend the StayNJ program to meet the recommendations of the StayNJ Task Force cleared committee in the state Senate on Monday [10/07/2028] afternoon.
..... The measure has been passed by the Assembly with bipartisan support in June. [2024]
..... The bill would modify the age and residency requirement to include people 65 and older who live in New Jersey as of December 31 for the benefit year.
..... It would also cerate one combined application process for all of the state's property tax relief programs - including both StayNJ and ANCHOR - that runs from February 1 through October 31 of each year.
..... The bill also requires a schedule to be established for payments with the homestead property tax reimbursement provided beginning in July. ANCHOR property tax rebates provided beginning in September and the Stay NJ property tax credit provided beginning
in November.
..... StayNJ payments would be provided as a credit against a claimant's property tax bill.
..... The bill would change the way benefits are calculated as well. under the new bill, eligible claimants that receive a combined homestead property tax reimbursement and ANJCHOR payment that is more than half of their property tax bill would not receive an additional Stay NJ credit. If the combined amount is less than 50%, they would receive a StayNJ credit equal to bring their local credits to 50 percent of their property tax bill. The maximum amount a claimant can receive would still the amount specified in the StayNJ program for a given year.
..... The bill requires a budgetary surplus of 12%, which is something that was in the initial legislator as well but was worked around during the budget process in June. [2024]
..... The program received anther $330 million in funding despite not hitting the required surplus benchmark, Language in the fiscal year 2025 appropriation bill allowed for funding and superseded the official program language laid out last year. [2023]
..... Lawmakers started setting money aside for the program in the budget that was signed last summer [2023] and are expected to be have about $300 million feuding built into next year's [2025] budget before the program goes into effect in 2026.
.....
It's expected to cost about $1.3 billion and benefit seniors with income of up to $500,000, with a projected 90% of eligible recipients having incomes of less than $200,000.