Eliminates requirement for State residency for public officers and employees with limited historic exceptions.

A146

ASSEMBLY, No. 146

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

�

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman DAWN FANTASIA

District 24 (Morris, Sussex and Warren)

Assemblyman MICHAEL INGANAMORT

District 24 (Morris, Sussex and Warren)

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblyman DiMaio

SYNOPSIS

���� Eliminates requirement for State residency for public
officers and employees with limited historic exceptions.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

���� Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative
Counsel.

��

An Act

concerning the residency of public officers and
employees and amending R.S.52:14-7.

����
Be It
Enacted
by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� R.S.52:14-7 is amended
to read as follows:

���� 52:14-7.� a.�
[
Every person
holding an office, employment, or position

���� (1)�� in the Executive,
Legislative, or Judicial Branch of this State, or

���� (2)�� with an authority,
board, body, agency, commission, or instrumentality of the State including any
State college, university, or other higher educational institution, and, to the
extent consistent with law, any interstate agency to which New Jersey is a party,
or

���� (3)�� with a county,
municipality, or other political subdivision of the State or an authority,
board, body, agency, district, commission, or instrumentality of the county,
municipality, or subdivision, or

���� (4)�� with a school district
or an authority, board, body, agency, commission, or instrumentality of the
district,
]
�

The Governor, each member of the Legislature, the head of each principal
department of the Executive Branch of State government, and every Justice of
the Supreme Court, judge of the Superior Court, and judge of any inferior court
established under the laws of this State
shall have his or her principal
residence in this State and shall execute such office, employment, or position.

����
[
This residency requirement shall
not apply to any person (a) who is employed on a temporary or per-semester
basis as a visiting professor, teacher, lecturer, or researcher by any State
college, university, or other higher educational institution, or county or
community college, or in a full or part-time position as a member of the
faculty, the research staff, or the administrative staff by any State college,
university, or other higher educational institution, or county or community
college, that the college, university, or institution has included in the
report required to be filed pursuant to this subsection, or (b) who is employed
full-time by the State who serves in an office, employment, or position that
requires the person to spend the majority of his or her working hours in a
location outside of this State.
]

���� For the purposes of this
subsection, a person may have at most one principal residence, and the state of
a person's principal residence means the state (1) where the person spends the
majority of his or her nonworking time, and (2) which is most clearly the
center of his or her domestic life, and (3) which is designated as his or her
legal address and legal residence for voting.� The fact that a

person is domiciled in this State
shall not by itself satisfy the requirement of principal residency hereunder.

����
[
A person, regardless of the
office, employment, or position, who holds an office, employment, or position
in this State on the effective date of P.L.2011, c.70 but does not have his or
her principal residence in this State on that effective date shall not be
subject to the residency requirement of this subsection while the person
continues to hold office, employment, or position without a break in public
service of greater than seven days.

���� Any person may request an
exemption from the provisions of this subsection on the basis of critical need
or hardship from a five-member committee hereby established to consider
applications for such exemptions.� The committee shall be composed of three persons
appointed by the Governor, a person appointed by the Speaker of the General
Assembly, and a person appointed by the President of the Senate, each of whom
shall serve at the pleasure of the person making the appointment and shall have
a term not to exceed five years.� A vacancy on the committee shall be filled in
the same manner as the original appointment was made.� The Governor shall make
provision to provide such clerical, secretarial and administrative support to
the committee as may be necessary for it to conduct its responsibilities
pursuant to this subsection.

���� The decision on whether to
approve an application from any person shall be made by a majority vote of the
members of the committee, and those voting in the affirmative shall so sign the
approved application.� If the committee fails to act on an application within
30 days after the receipt thereof, no exemption shall be granted and the
residency requirement of this subsection shall be operative.� The head of a
principal department of the Executive Branch of the State government, a Justice
of the Supreme Court, judge of the Superior Court and judge of any inferior
court established under the laws of this State shall not be eligible to request
from the committee an exemption from the provisions of this subsection.

���� The exemption provided in this
subsection for certain persons employed by a State college, university, or
other higher educational institution, or a county or community college, other
than those employed on a temporary or per-semester basis as a visiting
professor, teacher, lecturer, or researcher, shall apply only to those persons
holding positions that the college, university, or institution has included in
a report of those full or part-time positions as a member of the faculty, the
research staff, or the administrative staff requiring special expertise or
extraordinary qualifications in an academic, scientific, technical,
professional, or medical field or in administration, that, if not exempt from
the residency requirement, would seriously impede the ability of the college,
university, or institution to compete successfully with similar colleges,
universities, or institutions in other states.� The report shall be compiled
annually and shall also contain the reasons why the positions were selected for
inclusion in the report.� The report shall be compiled and filed within 60 days
following the effective date of P.L.2011, c.70.� The report shall be reviewed,
revised as necessary, and filed by January 1 of each year thereafter.� Each
report shall be filed with the Governor and, pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991,
c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), with the Legislature, and a report may be revised at any
time by filing an amendment to the report with the Governor and Legislature.

���� As used in this section,
"school district" means any local or regional school district
established pursuant to chapter 8 or chapter 13 of Title 18A of the New Jersey
Statutes and any jointure commission, county vocational school, county special
services district, educational services commission, educational research and
demonstration center, environmental education center, and educational
information and resource center.
]

���� b.��� If any person holding
any office, employment, or other position in this State shall attempt to let,
farm out or transfer such office, employment, or position or any part thereof
to any person, he shall forfeit the sum of fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500.00),
to be recovered with costs by any person who shall sue for the same, one-half
to the prosecutor and the other half to the treasurer for the use of the State.

���� c.���� No person shall be
appointed to or hold any position in this State who has not the requisite
qualifications for personally performing the duties of such position in cases
where scientific engineering skill is necessary to the performance of the
duties thereof.

���� d.��� Any person holding or
attempting to hold an office, employment, or position in violation of this
section shall be considered as illegally holding or attempting to hold the
same; provided that a person holding an office, employment, or position in this
State shall have one year from the time of taking the office, employment, or
position to satisfy the requirement of principal residency, and if thereafter
such person fails to satisfy the requirement of principal residency as defined
herein with respect to any 365-day period, that person shall be deemed
unqualified for holding the office, employment, or position.� The Superior
Court shall, in a civil action in lieu of prerogative writ, give judgment of
ouster against such person, upon the complaint of any officer or citizen of the
State, provided that any such complaint shall be brought within one year of the
alleged 365-day period of failure to have his or her principal residence in
this State.

(cf: P.L.2011, c.70, s.2)

���� 2.��� This act shall take
effect immediately.

STATEMENT

���� This bill eliminates the
requirement that all public officers and employees, with certain exceptions,
have their principal residence in this State.� This requirement was imposed in
2011.� Prior to imposing the requirement on all public officers and employees,
R.S.52:14-7 required State residency for the Governor, each member of the
Legislature, the head of each principal department of the Executive Branch of
State government, and every Justice of the Supreme Court, judge of the Superior
Court, and judge of any inferior court established under the laws of this State.�
This bill retains the residency requirement for persons holding these
positions, but eliminates it for all other public officers and employees
covered by R.S.52:14-7.