26 Jun Why are Stay NJ payments mailed instead of direct deposit?

Q. I know they were mailing a round of Stay NJ checks for the second installment. Why are they mailing checks and not doing direct deposit?
— Senior

A. The May payment for Stay NJ started to be mailed on May 15.

The state could change to direct deposit at some point. But it could also start to credit your property tax directly with your municipality.

Officials haven’t explained why the state chose checks over direct deposit, but the law gives the Treasury Department the option.

The statute also says the Treasury can make these payments as a credit against your property tax bill. That was actually the original goal of the program.

But imagine what a giant administrative nightmare that could be. Municipalities use different systems to manage property tax bills. For the state to directly send money to your municipality as a credit to your bill will take lots and lots of prep work to make sure all the systems are integrated.

So the Stay NJ Task Force said at least in the first year, if not beyond, the state can send checks or direct deposits — and the state chose checks — as it works on that integration.

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This story was originally published in June 2026. 

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