As the next generation of nuclear reactors is slated for deployment, likely within the next decade, state and federal planners and nuclear facility developers have an important role to play in integra...

Housing Faith-Based Affordable Housing Bill Introduced into New Jersey Assembly - On September 24th, Assemblywoman Reynolds-Jackson (D-15) introduced Assembly Bill A5570, which would authorize $250 mi...

Implementation of a federal student aid program is underway that could expand access to short-term workforce training in New Jersey. The Federal Pell Grant is a need-based federal grant that helps eli...

Digital/Technology Bills Introduced to Regulate A.I. Usage in Mortgages, Insurance, and Wage-Setting - On September 14th, three bills were introduced to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in ...

New Jersey has no statewide guardrails on police use of artificial intelligence, but that hasn't stopped cops from using it.

Only 44.9% of all New Jersey third graders who took the 2024-25 state proficiency exam were proficient in English language arts. Among low-income third graders specifically, just 28.7% demonstrated re...

Energy & Environment U.S. Circuit Court Revokes Permit for New Jersey Natural Gas Pipeline - On September 8th, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals overseeing Pennsylvania, Delaware, the U.S. Virgin ...

Public Administration Governor Sherrill Issues Executive Order Adjusting Judicial Advisory Panel - On August 31st, Governor Mikie Sherrill signed Executive Order 22 replacing four of the eight members...

With the start of the 2026-2027 school year, the New Jersey State Policy Lab is excited to announce a new plan for our publishing schedule to make our research and policy insights even easier to follo...

Health New Jersey Expands PFAS Prohibitions to Include Diaper Products - On August 27th, Bill S1281, sponsored by Senator Greenstein (D-14) and Senator Turner (D-15), was signed into law by Governor M...

Afterschool programs (ASPs) typically occur during the critical hours of 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. and offer a variety of enrichment activities such as arts, sports, STEM, and other character-building exercis...

With income being the most prominent variable in nutritional health, losing access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits can only serve to worsen the nutritional health of margi...

Economics New Jersey Loses 25,600 Jobs as Unemployment Falls to 4.4 Percent, Per Latest DOL Report - On August 20th the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development released the July 2026 ...

New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the country, with nearly 1,300 residents per square mile, according to the 2024 Census. Four New Jersey municipalities—Guttenberg, West New York, Unio...

Budget Cuts and Who Absorbs Them When budgets are cut, the first programs to go are those without dedicated funding or legal mandate. Many of those programs serve low-income, disabled, and vulnerable ...

Transportation New Law Expands On-Demand Micro-Transit Options - Governor Mikie Sherrill signed Bill A4761 into law on August 7th, which authorizes counties to expand on-demand microtransit options fo...

New Jersey’s property assessed clean energy program for commercial properties, the Garden State C-PACE program, is fully launched as of July 30, 2026. As detailed earlier in this series, PACE is a sta...

Public Administration Gov. Sherrill Denies Federal Request for Voter Registration Records - On July 21st, Governor Mikie Sherrill revealed that 6,600 noncitizens were registered to vote through a soft...

New Jersey recently joined more than 30 states in mandating universal literacy screenings in early elementary grades. These screenings—required by law to occur at least twice a year—assess students in...

Transportation New E-Bike Registration and Insurance Requirements Now in Effect – Bill S4834, signed by then-Gov. Phil Murphy in January, took effect on July 20th, establishing New Jersey’s first regi...

In our previous research published with the New Jersey State Policy Lab, we posed a question that is increasingly on the minds of ratepayers across the state: Are data centers raising your electric bi...

Over the past 30 years, heat has become the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States, with 210 million Americans at risk of health threats due to increasing extreme heat waves. Mea...

Environment & Energy Gov. Sherill Signs Bill Directing State to Procure New Nuclear Power Plant – On July 13th, Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed Bill A4881, directing the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to ...

Nationally, literacy rates among schoolchildren have become a growing concern, with the average reading scores for high school seniors falling to their lowest level since 1992, according to research f...

Environment & Energy Bill Reintroduced to Establish 'Pollinator-Friendly' Label for Plants, Implement Pesticide Regulations - On June 30th, New Jersey Assembly Bill A3094 was engrossed and filed for i...

Hospital consolidation is drawing more and more attention from healthcare scholars, policymakers, and the media. This consolidation includes hospital mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and the growth of l...

Researchers at the John J. Heldrich Center with support from the New Jersey State Policy Lab are currently working on a project to examine how New Jersey’s artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives can...

Public Administration Gov. Sherrill Signs Off on FY2027 Budget - On June 30th, Governor Mikie Sherrill signed the fiscal year 2027 budget into law, marking it the largest budget in state history with ...

The New Jersey Target Zero Action Plan, adopted in December 2025, identified a need for more immediate responses to fatal crashes. Action G.9. calls on the state to “explore a model Target Zero Rapid ...

Public Administration Senate and Assembly Budget Committees Approve $60.7B Budget for Fiscal Year 2027 - On June 29th, several outlets reported that the New Jersey Senate and Assembly Budget Committee...

New Jersey implemented paid family leave (PFL) in 2009, called the Family Leave Insurance program, and expanded it 10 years later to increase wage replacement rates, lengthen leave duration, and broad...

Health Bill Advances to Add Vitamin B9 to Corn Masa Products - On June 15, Bill A5119 unanimously passed the bipartisan Assembly Agriculture Committee with amendments. The “Fortifying Corn Masa Act” w...

If you have opened an electric bill recently, you have probably noticed the same thing many households have: it is higher than it used to be. Nationally, average residential electricity prices rose by...