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A4547
ASSEMBLY, No. 4547
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
222nd LEGISLATURE
�
INTRODUCED MARCH 10, 2026
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman� BRIAN BERGEN
District 26 (Morris and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
���� �Legislative Performance Compensation Reform Act�;
reduces annual salary of legislators from $82,000 to $0.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
���� As introduced.
��
An Act
concerning the salaries of members of the Legislature
and amending P.L.1948, c.16.
����
Be It
Enacted
by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:
���� 1.��� Section 1 of P.L.1948,
c.16 (C.52:10A-1) is amended to read as follows:
���� 1. a. Members of the Senate
and General Assembly shall receive annually, during the term for which they
shall have been elected and while they shall hold their office, compensation in
the sum of $49,000 beginning with the 2002 legislative year and thereafter
[
and
]
,
$82,000 beginning with the 2026 legislative year and thereafter
, and $0
beginning with the 2028 legislative year and thereafter
.
����
[
The President of the Senate and
the Speaker of the General Assembly, each by virtue of his office, shall
receive an additional allowance, equal to 1/3 of his compensation as a member.�
The compensation herein provided shall be paid to each member upon his
qualifying into office as such member, and the additional allowance herein
provided to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the General Assembly
shall be paid upon his qualifying into office as such officer.
]
���� b.��� Each member of the
Senate and General Assembly shall be provided with an allowance of $150,000
during each annual legislative session for member staff services.� There shall
be appropriated annually to the Legislature, from the general revenues of the
State, the amount necessary to provide such an allowance to each member.
(cf: P.L.2023, c.349, s.2)
���� 2.��� This act shall take
effect immediately.
STATEMENT
���� This bill reduces the annual
salary of members of the Legislature to zero dollars beginning with the 2028
legislative year.
���� New Jersey residents are
accustomed to hearing two familiar budgetary traditions each year.� The first
is the annual warning that the State faces a large structural deficit.� The
second is the reassurance that, despite this recurring problem, everything is
somehow still under control.
���� Year after year, New Jersey�s
fiscal outlook features the same storyline: spending that grows faster than
revenues, multi-billion-dollar structural imbalances, and budget proposals that
rely heavily on one-time fixes, accounting maneuvers, or optimistic projections
about the future.� While this approach has proven remarkably consistent, it has
not proven especially effective at producing stable, balanced budgets.
���� At roughly the same time that
these warnings about structural deficits continue to surface, the Legislature
determined that its own compensation required urgent attention.� In 2024, legislation
was enacted to increase legislator salaries from $49,000 to $82,000 annually
beginning in 2026, a 67 percent raise, apparently reflecting the extraordinary
fiscal management that has resulted in persistent structural gaps.
���� In most workplaces,
compensation is tied to outcomes. �If an employee repeatedly submits budgets
that do not balance, warns of looming deficits, and relies on temporary fixes
to keep the books afloat, the usual response is not to provide a generous pay
increase.
���� This bill therefore introduces
a modest reform: performance-based legislative compensation.
���� Under the bill, the annual
salary of members of the New Jersey Legislature will be set at zero dollars
beginning in 2028.� The delayed effective date ensures the change applies
prospectively and does not affect the current legislative term, consistent with
constitutional requirements.
���� Members of the Legislature
would still be free to continue serving the public, of course.� In fact, many
residents might welcome the opportunity for lawmakers to demonstrate that
public service, not budget deficits, is their primary motivation.
���� After all, if the Legislature
cannot manage to balance the State�s finances, the least it can do is balance
its own paycheck with its performance.
���� At zero dollars, the
compensation will finally match the results.