Chris Christie Signs 5 Bills Into Law, Vetoes Plan For School District Mergers

Gov. Chris Christie signed five bills into law last week while vetoing one piece of legislation that would address the merger of certain types of school districts.

One of the bills Christie signed will change the way you renew a driver's license. A New Jersey driver’s license will now expire every four years, on the driver’s birthday, rather than the last day of the month it was issued.

Read more: New Jersey Just Made A Significant Change To Driver's Licenses

Christie, meanwhile, vetoed legislation deals with the "non-operating districts," which have school boards and part-time staffers but have no students and no schools. Christie and lawmakers say they favor eliminating non-operating school districts, but they disagree on how to deal with the potential tax burdens that could follow.

Residents of those non-operating districts have complained that property taxes could skyrocket because funding would switch from a per-pupil calculation to one based on home values. Christie, as a result, says he wants budget language that would provide relief to those school districts upon their merger with another district.

"That language will provide particular nonoperating school districts the necessary financial assistance upon merging with another district without unfairly burdening taxpayers," he said. "This budget proposal will accomplish the same goals as attempted by this bill, to ease the way for districts seeking to merge and ensure that no merging district is put in a worse financial position after the merger."

Christie said he also objects to the bill's plan to establish a tax levy for a newly merged district that could exceed the 2 percent tax levy growth cap in the year in which the districts merge.

"Any measure that creates an exception to the two percent cap undermines the cap, despite how well-intentioned the exception may be," he said.

Christie took action on the following legislation:

BILL SIGNINGS:

S-295/A-2334 (Vitale, Sarlo/Benson, Vainieri Huttle, Mazzeo, Mukherji, Downey, Wimberly) - Requires DOH to issue standing order authorizing pharmacists to dispense opioid antidotes to patients without individual prescriptions

S-651/A-4262 (Turner, Pennacchio/Muoio, Lampitt, Chiaravalloti, Mukherji, Jimenez) - Requires family day care providers and certain household members to undergo criminal history record background checks

S-972wGR/A-1788 (Sweeney, O’Toole, Ruiz/Burzichelli, Giblin, Pintor Marin) – Establishes Child Advocacy Center-Multidisciplinary Team Advisory Board and certification program for child advocacy centers and multidisciplinary teams; appropriates $10 million

S-2564/A-4115 (Weinberg, A.R. Bucco/Johnson, Vainieri Huttle, A.M. Bucco, Quijano, Holley, Mukherji) - Provides that driver’s license and identification cards expire every four years on licensee or cardholder’s birthday

AJR-91/SJR-71 (Tucker, Johnson, Holley, Downey/Beach, Van Drew) - Designates June 27 of each year as "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Day"

BILL VETOED:

A-4352/S-2843 (Burzichelli, Taliaferro/Sweeney) – CONDITIONAL - Provides for elimination of newly formed non-operating school districts; establishes procedures for eliminating deficit that existed prior to merger; authorizes renting of school building for 10 years

Patch file photo