As Stay NJ checks hit mailboxes, Bergen criticizes decision to move forward

State officials are sending out the first round of Stay NJ senior property tax relief benefits this week, years after legislative leaders first proposed the program. 

The state will send $600 million to more than 430,000 of the state’s senior homeowners this week under the legislation, which is meant to keep older New Jerseyans in the state. The funds will come via paper check in the mail, and the benefit will average $639 for the 65-and-older homeowners who qualify, according to NJ Advance Media.

Assemblyman Brian Bergen (R-Denville), the Assembly minority whip, said disbursing was fiscally irresponsible. In a letter to acting Treasurer Aaron Binder, Bergen specifically pointed to a clause in the original Stay NJ funding that would have required the state to maintain a 12% budget surplus before checks went out. The surplus landed at about 11.5% for the current fiscal year, but former Gov. Phil Murphy signed a budget last year with new language that allowed the program to go forward without reaching that 12% threshold.

In his letter, Bergen said the decision to go forward with disbursing the Stay NJ benefits violated the spirit of the safeguards.

“While the FY2026 appropriations act authorized funding for the Stay NJ program and included ‘notwithstanding’ language with respect to surplus considerations, that budgetary provision does not, and cannot, nullify the operative safeguard preserved in the Stay NJ Act itself,” Bergen wrote to Binder. “The Legislature intentionally retained the 12 percent surplus protection to ensure that no Stay NJ payouts occur unless fiscal conditions remain sound.”

Danielle Currie, a spokesperson for the Treasury, said the program is moving forward “in accordance” with last year’s budget.

The cost of Stay NJ is expected to balloon in the next fiscal year, posing a challenge for Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s first budget. New Jersey Policy Perspective, a think tank focused on economic justice, found that legislators will face more than $900 million in additional Stay NJ costs during the upcoming budget cycle.

“I said from day one that Stay NJ was a bait-and-switch, flashy promise sold to seniors that politicians never intended to honor honestly,” Bergen said in a release. “If the administration is willing to ignore this law, what fiscal guardrail is safe? Taxpayers deserve stability, not election-year accounting tricks.”