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March 19, 2020

I. COVID19 Update: Governor Signs Executive Order on Elections
II. Coronavirus Requests to NJ Congressional Delegation
III. COVID19 Resource Page
IV. Further DLGS Guidance Coming

I. COVID19 Update: Governor Signs Executive Order on Elections

Earlier today (Thursday, March 19) Governor Murphy signed Executive Order 105 regarding upcoming elections against the backdrop of the State of Emergency in place because of the COVID19 pandemic.

To summarize, all March and April elections will be moved to Tuesday, May 12. Petitions may still be filed in person if complete but going forward the petition process will be moved online.  An online petition form will be set up online and the March 30 deadline will remain in place. The May elections will be conducted through Vote-By-Mail with VBM ballots automatically sent to all voters. More details are at Elections.NJ.Gov

The June primary is not impacted, except for the petition process.

The Governor also announced the closure of personal care businesses at 8 pm tonight, such as barbershops, hair salons, nail salons, tattoo parlors and massage parlors.

In addition, if your municipality is considering takes steps that go beyond either Executive Order 104 or Executive Order 105, please reach out in advance to your contact in the Governor’s IGA office.

If you don’t know who your contact is, please contact Mike Cerra at mcerra@njlm.org, who will pass it along to the IGA office.

II. Coronavirus Requests to NJ Congressional Delegation

On Wednesday, the New Jersey League of Municipalities delivered letters to Senators Menendez and Booker and all Members of New Jersey’s delegation in the House of Representatives. We thanked them for the steps they have already taken to address many of the issues that confront our municipalities, our State, and our Nation. We also asked them “to bolster efforts at the local level with funding certainty and the stability of unified, non-partisan leadership.”

Specifically, we asked them to bolster block grants to local governments, including Community Development Block Grants, Social Services Block Grants, and Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants.

We also asked consideration for other proposals that would help local governments protect the economy and our residents. Read the full details, with a link to the letter to our New Jersey delegation at the Town Crier Blog.

III. COVID19 Resource Page

To assist in providing guidance and information we have created a COVID19 resource page.

We will continue to update the page as we get pertinent information and include announcements in our Daily Updates.

IV. Further DLGS Guidance Coming

According to the Division of Local Government Services, they are working on a series of guidance documents related to budget, procurement, and other key topic areas for release in the next few days. Some has already been promulgated but please anticipate a Local Finance Notice to come out shortly. A number of budget issues will be addressed therein. For now, generally anticipate that this will be treated the way past emergencies have, for your planning purposes.

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