2025 New Jersey Legislative & Budget Agenda

Our 2025 Worker Power Agenda for New Jersey!

Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Items

1. Raise Revenue by Taxing the Wealthy & Making Corporations Pay Their Fair Share (FY26 Budget Item) 

Making corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share is a good common-sense policy that will allow our State to invest in programs and services that support working people, like education and transportation - particularly when federal funding is on the line.

  • Introducing new tax brackets for high-income earners
  • Restoring the estate tax with a $3.5 million shelter & reforming the inheritance tax
  • Restoring the sales tax rate to 7 percent and closing sales tax loopholes
  • Increasing realty transfer fee on luxury homes
  • Requiring large multinational corporations to report profits from overseas subsidiaries
  • Rebuilding the auditing and collection workforce

 

2. Fully Fund the State Pension 

The New Jersey state pension fund covers the retirement benefits for approximately 815,000 current and retired state and local government workers. Even though the State has fully funded the state pension in every budget for the past four years, the system is severely underfunded, and full contributions are essential to continuing on the path to a secure pension system. 

 

3. No Cuts to the Public Sector 

With the Trump administration threatening cuts at the federal level, we must fight against any cuts to programs, services, and jobs. 

 

4. $5 Million for the Office of Health Care Affordability and Transparency 

To strengthen OHCAT and provide the necessary resources to build oversight over healthcare spending particularly hospital pricing in New Jersey, we are fighting for a budget appropriation for OHCAT of $5 million. This request is intended to support OHCAT in expanding its staffing to execute the office’s duties of implementing the state’s healthcare affordability, responsibility, and transparency (HART) cost growth benchmark program, as well as other programs to address drivers of healthcare spending, such as high and rising hospital prices. 

 

5. Fund New Jersey’s Only Public Hospital

New Jerseyans rely on University Hospital, New Jersey’s only public hospital, and the region’s top trauma center, for care. The system is building a new hospital, is underfunded, and needs major investments from the State. 

 

6. Fund New Jersey’s Colleges and Universities 

Enrollment in higher education and on-campus living numbers are down. New Jersey City University is facing major fiscal challenges and needs financial support to keep doors open and university programs funded.

 

2025 Legislative Items

7. Increasing Affordability, Transparency, and Reducing Costs in Healthcare (Legislative Item, Introduction Pending)

Healthcare premiums for public employees and the cost of care in New Jersey are skyrocketing, making healthcare increasingly unaffordable for union members across the State. Meanwhile, the system lacks the necessary transparency and fair governance to allow meaningful oversight. That’s why we’re fighting for a legislative solution to achieve more affordable rates for state and local employees, bringing down healthcare costs, and increasing transparency and fair governance of the State Health Benefits Commission.

 

8. Labor Parity Act

In 2022, we passed the Responsible Collective Negotiations Act (RCNA), which prevents state government management from unilaterally imposing their proposed contract terms during employee negotiations, grants unions the authority to levy arbitration costs on individuals who are not members of the union and broadens the scope of what can be negotiated, including anti-layoff and anti-privatization language around job security. However, this bill omitted local government employees and employees at public colleges and universities. That’s why we’re fighting to extend these vital protections to local government and state colleges and universities.

 

9. Safe Staffing in New Jersey Hospitals [S2700 / A3683]

Across the State, unsafe staffing levels at public and private hospitals have hurt the quality of patient care, resulting in higher rates of errors, increased mortality, longer hospital stays, and decreased patient satisfaction. Furthermore, unsafe staffing is the number one driver of dissatisfaction in the healthcare workforce and a key driver of the recruitment and retention crisis. That’s why we’re fighting for legislation that would implement mandatory minimum staffing ratios in hospitals and medical facilities across the State with real enforcement.

 

10. Ban Anti-Union “Captive Audience Meetings” [S3302 /  A4429]

“Captive audience” meetings are used as a tool by employers to dissuade workers from joining a union. These meetings restrict workers’ right to free speech and the freedom to make their own decisions in the workplace. That’s why we’re fighting for legislation to prohibit “captive audience meetings” for anti-union efforts and ban retaliation against workers who refuse to participate in such meetings

 

11. Income Tax Deductions for Union Dues [S1066 / A2883]

In order to encourage union participation, workers should not be penalized for paying into the union. Union dues are expenses related to employment, and allowing workers to deduct union dues from their income taxes could put more than $1,000 back into union members’ pockets. That’s why we’re fighting to allow workers to deduct union dues from their income taxes.

 

12. Codify the Office of Health Care Affordability and Transparency

In 2022, the Office of Healthcare Affordability and Transparency was created by Executive Order to help guide the Administration’s work on healthcare affordability and price transparency. As healthcare becomes increasingly unaffordable for New Jerseyans, we need to build upon this important work. That’s why we’re fighting to strengthen and codify the Office of Healthcare Affordability and Transparency, along with the Health Care Cost Containment and Transparency Board, which will be responsible for providing an analysis of total healthcare expenditures in New Jersey and identifying trends.

 

13. Pension  Justice 

This legislation compresses the 5 tiers of the state TPAF and PERS systems into a single tier, bringing back fairness and a commitment to provide public service employees with dignity and economic security in their retirement in exchange for a career of public service in New Jersey.

 

14. Increasing Access to Child Care Package [S2241 / A1920; S2239/A3888]

  1. Expanded eligibility for childcare subsidies for families earning up to 300% of the federal poverty level
  2. Extending enrollment-based funding for in-home child care providers and licensed child care centers, which stabilizes both the financial stability of child care providers and access to affordable child care options for families
  3. Increasing the cap on the number of children permitted by the State’s Family Child Care Provider program

 

15. Privatization Cost Analysis Legislation (S1518/A919)

Privatizing public services often prioritizes profit over public good, leading to reduced accountability, higher costs, and poorer service quality while diminishing democratic control over essential services that communities rely on. This bill aims to ensure that no public services are privatized unless there are cost savings without increased charges reduced services to the public, or lowered workforce standards.