Law and Legal Expert

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NJ governor rejects affordable housing bill, sends it back to legislature

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie kept his promise, vetoing the most recent version of a controversial affordable housing bill that he says has drastically changed from the version he supported.

Christie has maintained that the iteration of the bill that passed the state Senate in June was the superior piece of legislation, but that it ran into problems in the Assembly. It was revised several times and after seven months of back-and-forth between both chambers, the Assembly and Senate jointly approved the latest version. However, Christie said their compromised legislation wasn’t good enough.

“This bill, for many municipalities, is worse than the existing system,” the governor said in his veto message. He sent a new version of the bill back to the legislature that was nearly identical to the one proposed in June.

Both versions of the bill favored abolishing the Council on Affordable Housing, the state-run program that critics say has done more harm than good in terms of delivering affordable apartments to low- and middle-income residents. However the latest iteration included a requirement that towns set aside 10 percent of their entire housing stock as affordable units for low-income tenants. Christie favors the previous version’s requirement, which mandates only 10 percent of new construction be reserved for affordable housing.

Affordable housing advocates had their issues with the current bill, but said Christie’s move to veto it was no help either.

“The governor sided with wealthy towns that want to keep out bus drivers, waitresses and public employees,” Kevin Walsh, associate director of the Fair Share Housing Center, told the Star-Ledger.

Assemblyman Jerry Green sponsored the latest iteration of the bill and said the version Christie supports would not hold up in court. He cited a legal opinion by the Office of Legislative Services that said the bill could violate the state constitution.

“The governor has now made it clear that he supports unconstitutional legislation that imposes higher fees on New Jersey businesses,” said Green. “Our bill was backed by a broad range of businesses, housing advocates, legal experts and local officials who understood it was the best way to provide housing for working class residents, create jobs and spark the economy. The governor, sadly, wants higher business taxes and a court fight.”

Walsh had previously told reporters the bill did little to encourage towns to develop more cheap apartments and actually removed several key requirements that sought to keep affordable housing development at a steady level.