13 Mar Who is eligible for the Stay NJ benefit?

Q. Who is eligible for the Stay NJ benefit?
— Taxpayer

A. As of right now, there’s one set of eligibility rules for the current Stay NJ benefit year, which is 2024.

Even though the next year’s benefit applications have been released, the eligibility requirements are expected to undergo changes because of trouble with the state budget. More on that in a moment.

Right now, you need to be 65 or older by the end of the benefit year, and you must have lived in and owned a home in New Jersey for the full 12 months of that year. You also need to have income below $500,000.

The benefit, coupled with ANCHOR and the Senior Freeze, would pay up to 50% of your property tax bill to a maximum of $6,500.

The state would first determine your ANCHOR payment, then add that to your Senior Freeze amount. If that’s less than 50% of your property tax bill, capped at $6,500, you would receive another payment under the Stay NJ name.

Let’s move to the expected changes.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill, in her budget speech earlier this month, recommended lowering the income cap to $250,000, and also lowering the total benefit to 50% of your property tax bill, but with a lower maximum of $4,000.

Lawmakers in Trenton are negotiating the state’s budget, which is due July 1. There’s no guarantee the cuts recommended by Sherrill will happen exactly as she proposed, but some cuts are expected because right now, the state is running at what’s called a structural deficit. In order to pay the bills, the state has to drip into its surplus — its emergency fund — something that isn’t sustainable in the long term. We’d wipe that out in about two years if changes aren’t made.

So we either need to cut spending or increase revenue, but Sherrill has pledged not to raise taxes. So cuts to spending, including Stay NJ, is what we expect to see.

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This story was originally published in March 2026. 

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