Permits county improvement authorities to establish student loan refinancing loan programs.

A2330

ASSEMBLY, No. 2330

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

�

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman WILLIAM F. MOEN, JR.

District 5 (Camden and Gloucester)

Assemblyman LOUIS D. GREENWALD

District 6 (Burlington and Camden)

SYNOPSIS

���� Permits county improvement authorities to establish
student loan refinancing loan programs.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

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

��

An Act
concerning county improvement authorities and amending
P.L.1960, c.183.

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

���� 1.��� Section 2 of P.L.1960,
c.183 (C.40:37A-45) is amended to read as follows:

���� 2.��� As used in this act,
unless a different meaning clearly appears from the context:

���� (a)�� "Authority"
shall mean a public body created pursuant to this act;

���� (b)�� "Bond
resolution" shall have the meaning ascribed thereto in section 17 of
P.L.1960, c.183 (C.40:37A-60);

���� (c)�� "Bonds" shall
mean bonds, notes or other obligations issued pursuant to this act;

���� (d)�� "Construct"
and "construction" shall connote and include acts of clearance,
demolition, construction, development or redevelopment, reconstruction,
replacement, extension, improvement and betterment;

���� (e)�� "Cost" shall
mean, in addition to the usual connotations thereof, the cost of planning,
acquisition or construction of all or any part of any public facility or
facilities of an authority and of all or any property, rights, easements,
privileges, agreements and franchises deemed by the authority to be necessary
or useful and convenient therefor or in connection therewith and the cost of
retiring the present value of the unfunded accrued liability due and owing by
the authority, as calculated by the system actuary for a date certain upon the
request of the authority, for early retirement incentive benefits granted by
the authority pursuant to P.L.1991, c.230 and P.L.1993, c.181, including
interest or discount on bonds, cost of issuance of bonds, architectural,
engineering and inspection costs and legal expenses, cost of financial,
professional and other estimates and advice, organization, administrative,
operating and other expenses of the authority prior to and during such
acquisition or construction, and all such other expenses as may be necessary or
incident to the financing, acquisition, construction and completion of such
public facility or facilities or part thereof and the placing of the same fully
in operation or the disposition of the same, and also such provision or
reserves for working capital, operating, maintenance or replacement expenses or
for payment or security of principal of or interest on bonds during or after
such acquisition or construction as the authority may determine, and also reimbursements
to the authority or any governmental unit or person of any moneys theretofore
expended for the purposes of the authority;

���� (f)�� The term
"county" shall mean any county of any class of the State and shall
include, without limitation, the terms "the county" and
"beneficiary county" defined in this act, and the term "the
county" shall mean the county which created an authority pursuant to this
act;

���� (g)�� "Development
project" shall mean any lands, structures, or property or facilities
acquired or constructed or to be acquired or constructed by an authority for
the purposes of the authority described in subsection (e) of section 11 of
P.L.1960, c.183 (C.40:37A-54);

���� (h)�� "Facility
charges" shall have the meaning ascribed to said term in section 14 of
P.L.1960, c.183 (C.40:37A-57);

���� (i)��� "Facility
revenues" shall have the meaning ascribed to said term in subsection (e)
of section 20 of P.L.1960, c.183 (C.40:37A-63);

���� (j)��� "Governing
body" shall mean, in the case of a county, the board of chosen
freeholders, or in the case of a county operating under article 3 or 5 of the
"Optional County Charter Law," P.L.1972, c.154 (C.40:41A-1 et seq.)
as defined thereunder, and, in the case of a municipality, the commission,
council, board or body, by whatever name it may be known, having charge of the
finances of the municipality;

���� (k)�� "Governmental
unit" shall mean the United States of America or the State or any county
or municipality or any subdivision, department, agency, or instrumentality
heretofore or hereafter created, designated or established by or for the United
States of America or the State or any county or municipality;

���� (l)��� "Local bond
law" shall mean chapter 2 of Title 40A, Municipalities and Counties, of
the New Jersey Statutes (N.J.S.) as amended and supplemented;

���� (m)� "Municipality"
shall mean any city, borough, village, town, or township of the State but not a
county or a school district;

���� (n)�� "Person" shall
mean any person, partnership, association, corporation or entity other than a
nation, state, county or municipality or any subdivision, department, agency or
instrumentality thereof;

���� (o)�� "Project"
shall have the meaning ascribed to said term in section 17 of P.L.1960, c.183
(C.40:37A-60);

���� (p)�� "Public
facility" shall mean any lands, structures, franchises, equipment, or
other property or facilities acquired, constructed, owned, financed, or leased
by the authority or any other governmental unit or person to accomplish any of
the purposes of an authority authorized by section 11 of P.L.1960, c.183
(C.40:37A-54);

���� (q)�� "Real
property" shall mean lands within or without the State, above or below
water, and improvements thereof or thereon, or any riparian or other rights or
interests therein;

���� (r)��� "Garbage and solid
waste disposal system" shall mean the plants, structures and other real
and personal property acquired, constructed or operated or to be acquired,
constructed or operated by a county improvement authority, including incinerators,
sanitary landfill facilities or other plants for the treatment and disposal of
garbage, solid waste and refuse matter and all other real and personal property
and rights therein and appurtenances necessary or useful and convenient for the
collection and treatment or disposal in a sanitary manner of garbage, solid
waste and refuse matter (but not including sewage);

���� (s)�� "Garbage, solid
waste or refuse matter" shall mean garbage, refuse and other discarded
materials resulting from industrial, commercial and agricultural operations,
and from domestic and community activities, and shall include all other waste
materials including sludge, chemical waste, hazardous wastes and liquids,
except for liquids which are treated in public sewage treatment plants and
except for solid animal and vegetable wastes collected by swine producers
licensed by the State Department of Agriculture to collect, prepare and feed
such wastes to swine on their own farms;

���� (t)��� "Blighted,
deteriorated or deteriorating area" may include an area determined
heretofore by the municipality to be blighted in accordance with the provisions
of P.L.1949, c.187, repealed by P.L.1992, c.79 (C.40:55-21.1 et seq.) and, in
addition, areas which are determined by the municipality, pursuant to the same
procedures as provided in said law, to be blighted, deteriorated or
deteriorating because of structures or improvements which are dilapidated or
characterized by disrepair, lack of ventilation or light or sanitary
facilities, faulty arrangement, location, or design, or other unhealthful or
unsafe conditions;

���� (u)�� "Redevelopment"
may include planning, replanning, conservation, rehabilitation, clearance,
development and redevelopment; and the construction and rehabilitation and
provision for construction and rehabilitation of residential, commercial, industrial,
public or other structures and the grant or dedication or rededication of
spaces as may be appropriate or necessary in the interest of the general
welfare for streets, parks, playgrounds, or other public purposes including
recreational and other facilities incidental or appurtenant thereto, in
accordance with a redevelopment plan approved by the governing body of a
municipality;

���� (v)�� "Redevelopment
plan" shall mean a plan as it exists from time to time for the
redevelopment of all or any part of a redevelopment area, which plan shall be
sufficiently complete to indicate such land acquisition, demolition and removal
of structures, redevelopment, improvements, conservation or rehabilitation as
may be proposed to be carried out in the area of the project, zoning and
planning changes, if any, land uses, maximum densities, building requirements,
the plan's relationship to definite local objectives respecting appropriate
land uses, improved traffic, public transportation, public utilities,
recreational and community facilities, and other public improvements and
provision for relocation of any residents and occupants to be displaced in a
manner which has been or is likely to be approved by the Department of
Community Affairs pursuant to the "Relocation Assistance Law of
1967," P.L.1967, c.79 (C.52:31B-1 et seq.) and the "Relocation
Assistance Act," P.L.1971, c.362 (C.20:4-1 et seq.) and rules and
regulations pursuant thereto;

���� (w)� "Redevelopment
project" shall mean any undertakings and activities for the elimination,
and for the prevention of the development or spread, of blighted, deteriorated,
or deteriorating areas and may involve any work or undertaking pursuant to a
redevelopment plan; such undertaking may include: (1) acquisition of real
property and demolition, removal or rehabilitation of buildings and
improvements thereon; (2) carrying out plans for a program of voluntary repair
and rehabilitation of buildings or other improvements; and (3) installation,
construction or reconstruction of streets, utilities, parks, playgrounds or
other improvements necessary for carrying out the objectives of the
redevelopment project;

���� (x)�� "Redeveloper"
shall mean any person or governmental unit that shall enter into or propose to
enter into a contract with an authority for the redevelopment of an area or any
part thereof under the provisions of this act;

���� (y)�� "Redevelopment
area" shall mean an area of a municipality which the governing body
thereof finds is a blighted area or an area in need of rehabilitation whose
redevelopment is necessary to effectuate the public purposes declared in this
act.� A redevelopment area may include lands, buildings, or improvements which
of themselves are not detrimental to the public health, safety or welfare, but
whose inclusion is found necessary, with or without change in their condition,
for the effective redevelopment of the area of which they are a part;

���� (z)�� "Sludge" shall
mean any solid, semisolid, or liquid waste generated from a municipal,
industrial or other sewage treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or
air pollution control facility, or any other such waste having similar
characteristics and effects, but shall not include effluent; and

���� (aa) "Beneficiary
county" shall mean any county that has not created an authority pursuant
to this act
; except that with respect to a program to refinance student
loans, it shall include any county

that has not established its own
program to refinance student loans, whether or not that county has created an
authority pursuant to P.L.1960, c.183 (C.40:37A-44 et seq.)
.

(cf: P.L.2002, c.42, s.6)

���� 2.��� Section 11 of P.L.1960,
c.183 (C.40:37A-54) is amended to read as follows:

���� 11.� The purposes of every
authority shall be (a) provision within the county or any beneficiary county of
public facilities for use by the State, the county or any beneficiary county,
or any municipality in any such county, or any two or more or any subdivisions,
departments, agencies or instrumentalities of any of the foregoing for any of
their respective governmental purposes, (b) provision within the county or any
beneficiary county of public facilities for use as convention halls, or the
rehabilitation, improvement or enlargement of any convention hall, including
appropriate and desirable appurtenances located within the convention hall or
near, adjacent to or over it within boundaries determined at the discretion of
the authority, including but not limited to office facilities, commercial
facilities, community service facilities, parking facilities, hotel facilities
and other facilities for the accommodation and entertainment of tourists and
visitors, (c) provision within the county or any beneficiary county of
structures, franchises, equipment and facilities for operation of public
transportation or for terminal purposes, including development and improvement
of port terminal structures, facilities and equipment for public use in
counties in, along or through which a navigable river flows, (d) provision
within the county or any beneficiary county of structures or other facilities
used or operated by the authority or any governmental unit in connection with,
or relative to development and improvement of, aviation for military or
civilian purposes, including research in connection therewith, and including
structures or other facilities for the accommodation of passengers, (e)
provision within the county or any beneficiary county of a public facility for
a combination of governmental and nongovernmental uses; provided that not more
than
[
50%
]

50 percent

of the usable space in any such facility shall be made available for
nongovernmental use under a lease or other agreement by or with the authority,
(f) acquisition of any real property within the county or any beneficiary
county, with or without the improvements thereof or thereon or personal
property appurtenant or incidental thereto, from the United States of America
or any department, agency or instrumentality heretofore or hereafter created,
designated or established by or for it, and the clearance, development or
redevelopment, improvement, use or disposition of the acquired lands and
premises in accordance with the provisions and for the purposes stated in this
act, including the construction, reconstruction, demolition, rehabilitation,
conversion, repair or alteration of improvements on or to said lands and
premises, and structures and facilities incidental to the foregoing as may be
necessary, convenient or desirable, (g) acquisition, construction, maintenance
and operation of garbage and solid waste disposal systems for the purpose of
collecting and disposing of garbage, solid waste or refuse matter, whether
owned or operated by any person, the authority or any other governmental unit,
within or without the county or any beneficiary county, (h) the improvement,
furtherance and promotion of the tourist industries and recreational
attractiveness of the county or any beneficiary county through the planning,
acquisition, construction, improvement, maintenance and operation of facilities
for the recreation and entertainment of the public, which facilities may
include, without being limited to, a center for the performing and visual arts,
(i) provision of loans and other financial assistance and technical assistance
for the construction, reconstruction, demolition, rehabilitation, conversion,
repair or alteration of buildings or facilities designed to provide decent,
safe and sanitary dwelling units for persons of low and moderate income in need
of housing, including the acquisition of land, equipment or other real or
personal properties which the authority determines to be necessary, convenient
or desirable appurtenances, all in accordance with the provisions of this act,
as amended and supplemented, (j) planning, initiating and carrying out
redevelopment projects for the elimination, and for the prevention of the
development or spread of blighted, deteriorated or deteriorating areas and the
disposition, for uses in accordance with the objectives of the redevelopment
project, of any property or part thereof acquired in the area of such project,
(k) any combination or combinations of the foregoing or following, and (l)
subject to the prior approval of the Local Finance Board, the planning, design,
acquisition, construction, improvement, renovation, installation, maintenance
and operation of facilities or any other type of real or personal property
within the county for a corporation or other person organized for any one or
more of the purposes described in subsection a. of N.J.S.15A:2-1 except those
facilities or any other type of real or personal property which can be financed
pursuant to the provisions of P.L.1972, c.29 (C.26:2I-1 et seq.) as amended.� A
county improvement authority shall also have as its
[
purpose
]

purposes
the pooling of loans for any local governmental units within
the county or any beneficiary county that are refunding bonds in order to
achieve more favorable interest rates and terms for those local governmental
units
, and the refinancing of student loans, whether in the name of a
student or parent borrower, for students or parent borrowers who are residents
of the county or a beneficiary county
.

(cf:
P.L.2002, c.42, s.8)

���� 3.��� Section 12 of P.L.1960,
c.183 (C.40:37A-55) is amended to read as follows:

���� 12.� Every authority shall be
a public body politic and corporate constituting a political subdivision of the
State established as an instrumentality exercising public and essential
governmental functions to provide for the public convenience, benefit and welfare
and shall have perpetual succession and, for the effectuation of its purposes,
have the following additional powers:

���� (a)�� To adopt and have a
common seal and to alter the same at pleasure;

���� (b)�� To sue and be sued;

���� (c)�� To acquire, hold, use
and dispose of its facility charges and other revenues and other moneys;

���� (d)�� To acquire, rent, hold,
use and dispose of other personal property for the purposes of the authority;

���� (e)�� Subject to the
provisions of section 26 of this act, to acquire by purchase, gift,
condemnation or otherwise, or lease as lessee, real property and easements or
interests therein necessary or useful and convenient for the purposes of the
authority, whether subject to mortgages, deeds of trust or other liens or
otherwise, and to hold and to use the same, and to dispose of property so
acquired no longer necessary for the purposes of the authority; provided that
the authority may dispose of such property at any time to any governmental unit
or person if the authority shall receive a leasehold interest in the property
for such term as the authority deems appropriate to fulfill its purposes;

���� (f)�� Subject to the
provisions of section 13 of this act, to lease to any governmental unit or
person, all or any part of any public facility for such consideration and for
such period or periods of time and upon such other terms and conditions as it
may fix and agree upon;

���� (g)�� To enter into agreements
to lease, as lessee, public facilities for such term and under such conditions
as the authority may deem necessary and desirable to fulfill its purposes, and
to agree, pursuant thereto, to be unconditionally obligated to make payments
for the term of the lease, without set-off or counterclaim, whether or not the
public facility is completed, operating or operable, and notwithstanding the
destruction of, damage to, or suspension, interruption, interference, reduction
or curtailment of the availability or output of the public facility to which
the agreement applies;

���� (h)�� To extend credit or make
loans to any governmental unit or person for the planning, design, acquisition,
construction, equipping and furnishing of a public facility, upon the terms and
conditions that the loans be secured by loan and security agreements,
mortgages, leases and other instruments, the payments on which shall be
sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on any bonds issued for the
purpose by the authority, and upon such other terms and conditions as the
authority shall deem reasonable;

���� (i)��� Subject to the
provisions of section 13 of this act, to make agreements of any kind with any
governmental unit or person for the use or operation of all or any part of any
public facility for such consideration and for such period or periods of time
and upon such other terms and conditions as it may fix and agree upon;

���� (j)��� (1)���� To borrow money
and issue negotiable bonds or notes or other obligations and provide for and
secure the payment of any bonds and the rights of the holders thereof, and to
purchase, hold and dispose of any bonds;

���� (2)�� To issue bonds, notes or
other obligations to provide funding to a municipality that finances the
purchase and installation of renewable energy systems and energy efficiency
improvements by property owners as provided in section 2 of P.L.2011, c.187
(C.40:56-13.1);

���� (k)�� To apply for and to
accept gifts or grants of real or personal property, money, material, labor or
supplies for the purposes of the authority from any governmental unit or
person, and to make and perform agreements and contracts and to do any and all
things necessary or useful and convenient in connection with the procuring,
acceptance or disposition of such gifts or grants;

���� (l)��� To determine the
location, type and character of any public facility and all other matters in
connection with all or any part of any public facility which it is authorized
to own, construct, establish, effectuate or control;

���� (m)� To make and enforce
bylaws or rules and regulations for the management and regulation of its
business and affairs and for the use, maintenance and operation of any public
facility, and to amend the same;

���� (n)�� To do and perform any
acts and things authorized by this act under, through or by means of its own
officers, agents and employees, or by contract with any governmental unit or
person;

���� (o)�� To acquire, purchase,
construct, lease, operate, maintain and undertake any project and to fix and
collect facility charges for the use thereof;

���� (p)�� To mortgage, pledge or
assign or otherwise encumber all or any portion of its revenues and other
income, real and personal property, projects and facilities for the purpose of
securing its bonds, notes and other obligations or otherwise in furtherance of
the purpose of this act;

���� (q)�� To extend credit or make
loans to redevelopers for the planning, designing, acquiring, constructing,
reconstructing, improving, equipping and furnishing any redevelopment project
or redevelopment work;

���� (r)��� To conduct examinations
and investigations, hear testimony and take proof, under oath at public or
private hearings of any material matter, require the attendance of witnesses
and the production of books and papers and issue commissions for the examination
of witnesses who are out of the State, unable to attend, or excused from
attendance;

���� (s)�� To authorize a committee
designated by it consisting of one or more members, or counsel, or any officer
or employee to conduct any such investigation or examination, in which case
such committee, counsel, officer or employee shall have power to administer
oaths, take affidavits and issue
[
subpenas
]

subpoenas

or commissions;

���� (t)��� To enter into any and
all agreements or contracts, execute any and all instruments, and do and
perform any and all acts or things necessary, convenient or desirable for the
purposes of the authority or to carry out any power expressly given in this act
subject to the "Local Public Contracts Law," P.L.1971, c.198
(C.40A:11-1 et seq.);

���� (u)�� To pool loans for any
local governmental units within the county or any beneficiary county that are
refunding bonds and do and perform any and all acts or things necessary,
convenient or desirable for the purpose of the authority to achieve more
favorable interest rates and terms for those local governmental units;
[
and
]

���� (v)�� To act as and exercise
the powers of a land bank entity pursuant to P.L.2019, c.159 (C.40A:12A-74 et
al.) for any municipality situated within the county pursuant to a land banking
agreement approved by an ordinance adopted by the municipal governing body
;
and

����
(w)� Upon the direction of
the county governing body, to make loans, and advertise the availability of
such loans, to any student borrower or parent borrower who is a resident of the
county or a beneficiary county, and to any parent borrower who is a resident of
the State or has their primary employment within the State and who is the
obligor on a student loan for a student who is a resident of the county or a
beneficiary county, for the purpose of refinancing that student loan at a lower
interest rate.� For the purposes of this subsection, �student loan� means any
amount borrowed, whether through a public or private lender, for the purpose of
attending an institution of higher education or a proprietary institution
licensed in New Jersey to offer academic degrees.

����
(1)�� A student loan
refinancing loan shall be made upon terms and conditions as determined by the
authority, and shall include but not be limited to at least two different types
of repayment plans, one of which shall provide a percentage-of-discretionary
income repayment plan.� Any repayment plan, to the extent practicable, shall
include deferment or forbearance options.� All repayment plans shall include
provisions regarding cancellation of an outstanding student loan reimbursement
loan balance upon certification of the death, total and permanent disability,
or temporary disability of a student borrower, that are consistent with the
terms of New Jersey College Loans to Assist State Students (NJCLASS) loans
following the enactment of P.L.2016, c.71 (C.18A:71C-31.1 et seq.).

����
(2)�� The interest rate and
payments on student loan refinancing loans shall be set by the authority at
levels sufficient to pay the principal of, and interest on, any bonds issued by
the authority for this purpose, and upon such other terms and conditions as the
authority shall deem reasonable; provided, however, that the authority shall
not refinance a student loan when the proposed monthly payments would result in
an undue hardship for the borrower, taking into consideration their current
sources of income and other expenses.� Any collections from student loan
refinancing loan payments in excess of the amount necessary to pay the
principal of, and interest on, any bonds issued by the authority for this
purpose shall be used solely to cover the reasonable costs of administering the
student loan refinancing program and losses from defaults and other risks.

����
(3)�� It is intended that
any student loan refinanced pursuant to this subsection shall not be
dischargeable in bankruptcy.

����
(4)�� The authority shall
ensure that a borrower may contact and speak with a live representative of the
authority who can access the borrower�s loan information and who has knowledge
of the student loan refinancing program
.

(cf: P.L.2019, c.159, s.17)

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

STATEMENT

���� This bill permits county
improvement authorities to establish student loan refinancing programs for
certain borrowers.� Under the bill, a student-borrower who is a resident of the
county, or a parent-borrower who is a New Jersey resident or has his primary
employment in the State and who is the obligor on a student loan for a student
who is a resident of the county, may apply to refinance that student loan at a
lower interest rate.

���� The county improvement
authority will set the interest rate and other terms of the student loan
refinancing loan, provided that the interest rates charged are sufficient to
pay the principal and interest on any bonds issued by the authority to fund its
program.� The authority is required to provide at least two different types of
repayment plans, one of which must provide, to the extent practicable,
deferment or forbearance options.

���� The bill stipulates that the
authority is not permitted to refinance a student loan if the payments would
result in an undue hardship on the borrower, taking into consideration the
borrower�s current income and expenses.� The bill provides that any student
loan refinancing loan may not be dischargeable in bankruptcy.�

���� The bill also provides that
the authority must ensure that a borrower may contact and speak with a live
representative of the authority who can access the borrower�s loan information
and who has knowledge of the student loan refinancing program.