Bills in the 2008–2009 Session, General Assembly.
L. Grace Spencer
Sponsored
Became law2
Requires boards of education to permit public participation at board meetings.
Revises approval process for rate changes applicable to medical malpractice liability insurance.
Passed the General Assembly5
Concerns overpayments to public utilities.
Requires ATM independent sales organizations to provide certain withdrawal options.
Expands parity between certain State-chartered financial institutions, and permits interstate banking by such institutions through de novo branching or expanded authority to acquire existing branches or institutions.
Requires motorists operating vehicles to maintain minimum three foot safety distance when overtaking bicycles.
Creates self-defense justification for victims of domestic violence.
Out of committee7
Requires sex offender who evacuates during emergency to report to law enforcement.
Provides for annual cost-of-living increase in amount of Lifeline Credit and Tenants' Lifeline Assistance payment.
Regulates certain rental-purchase agreements.
Appropriates $54,917,725 from various Green Acres funds for local government open space acquisition and park development projects.
Clarifies that certain sports and entertainment projects are an essential public and governmental use and purpose and exempt from property taxation.
Allows persons on parole and probation to vote; provides registration assistance to persons on probation, parolees, and persons completing sentences.
Authorizes courts to revoke fees at sentencing, include mediation as an alternative sentence, consider testimony from a defendant's family, and reduce the waiting period for certain expungements.
In committee41
Provides that certain young persons are not liable for certain debts.
Establishes a gross income tax credit for enrollment at a New Jersey college or university.
Modifies elements of the crime of stalking.
Requires readings at two separate meetings before final passage of a policy by a board of education.
Eliminates certain penalties for drug offenses in school zones and public areas.
Prohibits the sale, importation, possession and carrying of handguns except by certain authorized persons.
Allows an adopted person 18 years of age or older access to his original birth certificate and other related information.
Upgrades falsely incriminating another and fictitious reporting of an offense under certain circumstance.
Permits counties to establish a central municipal drug court.
Requires non-custodial parent to purchase health benefits coverage for child.
Requires social studies teachers to complete training in African-American studies.
Requires Juvenile Justice Commission to assist juveniles released from incarceration in obtaining certain documents.
Establishes "Matthew's Law Limiting the Use of Restraints."
Permits public school districts to include instruction on the problems of obesity as part of the Core Curriculum Content Standards in Comprehensive Health and Physical Education.
Makes right turn on red optional rather than mandatory.
Prohibits possession of ammunition capable of penetrating body armor.
Establishes Distressed Cemetery Maintenance and Preservation Fund.
Prohibits retail mercantile establishments from selling or leasing paging devices and celluar telephones to individuals under 21 years of age under certain circumstances.
Requires State Board of Education to authorize African-American studies endorsement to the instructional certificate.
Requires managed care entities to offer option permitting enrollee to use health care provider of choice.
Increases minimum wage.
Imposes mandatory prison terms for prostitution offenses within 1,000 feet of a school.
Extends polling place hours for school elections.
Establishes a public school class-size reduction program; appropriates $42,000,000.
Requires Abbott districts to develop a program of after school activities and provides for voter approval of additional local funding.
Provides for voluntary contributions by taxpayers on gross income tax returns for hospice and palliative care programs.
Establishes Office of Minority Teacher Recruitment in Department of Education.
Requires reduction in electricity usage by 10 percent in all State-owned or leased buildings.
Authorizes educational service providers to provide in-district special education instructional programs.
Provides enhanced penalties for drunk drivers with blood alcohol concentration of 0.17% or greater.
Establishes the California fine particle standard as State standard.
Provides enhanced penalties for certain crimes when victim is 65 years of age or older, or disabled.
Authorizes certain municipalities to impose a tax on the storage of empty shipping containers to fund redevelopment plan activites.
Prohibits retail dealer from selling or offering to sell motor fuel at different price to cash and credit customers.
Clarifies intent of Legislature to protect certain senior tenants; aligns housing age restrictions with federal law.
Establishes do not leave list.
Makes certain requirements concerning downhill skiing.
Requires criminal history record check of school district volunteers.
Authorizes Essex County to establish a central municipal court.
Requires the New Jersey Schools Development Authority to biannually compile information on school facilities project contracts awarded to minority and female contractors.
The "Residential Mortgage Satisfaction Act."
Carried from the Senate
Became law2
Appropriates $54,917,725 from various Green Acres funds for local government open space acquisition and park development projects.
Clarifies that certain sports and entertainment projects are an essential public and governmental use and purpose and exempt from property taxation.
Co-sponsored
Became law · 20
Revises laws concerning the provision of affordable housing.
Revises eligibility for expungement of criminal and juvenile delinquency records.
Permits qualified trustee to hold interest in alcoholic beverage license for qualified beneficiary under age 18.
Requires each general hospital and State psychiatric hospital to annually conduct public meeting for community it serves. *
Provides period of extension for repayment of introductory rate mortgages on residential property under certain circumstances.
Establishes a "Silver Alert System." *
Increases EDA bonding limit for State share of school facilities projects; specifies debt service for these bonds will first be payable from revenues received from gross income tax; establishes priority categories for non-SDA district projects. *
Adds non-voting member to NJT board.
Makes FY 2009 supplemental appropriations totaling $22,500,000 to provide food, energy and legal aid assistance to individuals and families under the "New Jersey Economic Assistance and Recovery Plan."
Establishes the "Main Street Business Assistance Program;" appropriates $50 million.
The "Green Acres, Water Supply and Floodplain Protection, and Farmland and Historic Preservation Bond Act of 2009," authorizes bonds for $400 million; appropriates $5,000. **
"New Jersey Economic Stimulus Act of 2009"; appropriates $15 million to "New Jersey Affordable Housing Trust Fund." *
Establishes the "New Jersey Foreclosure Fairness Act"; imposes additional foreclosure notice requirements; amends "Mortgage Stabilization and Relief Act." *
Establishes "Women and Families Strengthening Act."
Provides for programs and services for inmates and formerly incarcerated persons; and institutes certain administrative procedures. *
Concerns parole eligibility and supervision, prison visitation, and training and education standards for incarcerated persons.
Permits adult with an autism spectrum disorder to voluntarily register with the State registry of reported diagnoses in children.
Clarifies provisions of "Law Against Discrimination" concerning persons with an autism spectrum disorder.
Brings State law into conformity with federal law concerning sharing of certain mental health information relating to the purchase and possession of firearms.
Provides that certain drunk driving offenders who drive with a suspended driver's license are guilty of a fourth degree crime.
Passed the General Assembly · 13
Requires court, prior to granting a domestic violence victim's application to dissolve restraining order, to make a finding that the application was made voluntarily. *
Allows State or State authority to terminate construction contract upon transfer of contractor's ownership or control; requires advance approval of subcontractor changes.
Authorizes the court to credit an indigent person under certain circumstances.
Prohibits application of certain temporary "black" or "blue" henna tattoos.
Establishes timeframes for certain stages in interest arbitration procedures.
Requires ATM operators to disclose balance inquiry fees.
Establishes procedures to prevent and eradicate bedbug infestations in certain residential property.
Exempts sales to homeowner assistance and recovery programs from realty transfer fees.
Increases statute of limitations and provides treble damages for certain violations of "Uniform Securities Law (1997)." *
Increases income eligibility limit for homestead property tax reimbursement program.
Establishes permissive inferences related to conduct that serves as predicate to sex offenses against minors.
Upgrades certain sex crimes against minors.
Establishes Statewide database of beds in shelters for the homeless.
Out of committee · 20
"Historic Property Reinvestment Act"; provides credits against certain taxes for certain costs of rehabilitating historic properties.
Increases funding of Senior Citizen and Disabled Resident Transportation Program.
Requires certain cities of the second class to establish a Second Chance Council to develop a plan to increase jobs for released criminals and high school dropouts.
Regulates certain credentialing and trade practices of insurance producers, and provides private cause of action for insurance producer violations.
Makes various changes to the "Law Against Discrimination"; repeals section 4 of P.L.1985, c.73.
Authorizes enhanced DHSS monitoring of hospital financial performance and intervention in management of identified distressed hospitals.
Prohibits employment and licensing background checks to go back further than seven years under certain circumstances.
Authorizes certain municipalities to impose and securitize a motor vehicle rental tax funding certain redevelopment activities, and to impose parking and ticket surcharges at certain facilities to fund senior and youth health and recreation purposes. **
Creates eight additional judgeships; increases certain court fees to fund judgeships and to supplement funding for Legal Services of New Jersey.
Requires staff of shelters for victims of domestic violence and emergency shelters for homeless to undergo criminal history record background checks.
The "Banking Development District Act."
Provides statute of limitations for residential mortgage foreclosures.
Establishes Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program. *
Establishes Criminal Sentencing Commission to study and review the criminal law and recommend revisions; repeals existing commissions. *
Expands membership of Police Training Commission to include representative from Northern New Jersey and South Jersey chapters of National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.
Provides penalties for sexually offensive communication or harassing communication through social networking websites. *
Establishes Task Force on Underage Drinking in Higher Education.
Requires public bodies to provide funds for outreach and training programs for minority group members and women in connection with certain construction contracts.
Revises State share calculation for debt service aid for new school facilities projects of county vocational school districts.
Modifies laws concerning inmate income and complaints; creates uniform identification cards for attorneys to enter State correctional facilities. *
In committee · 50
Permits adopted person and certain others access to adopted person's original birth certificate and other related information; appropriates $90,000.
Broadens eligibility for certain veterans' benefits by eliminating requirement of service during specified dates or in specified locations.
Provides for automatic expungement of criminal records under certain circumstances.
Requires retail food establishments to provide certain nutritional information for food or beverage items sold to its customers.
Makes employment matters not exempted by statute mandatory subjects of public employment collective bargaining.
Establishes the "Healthy Workplace Act."
Enters New Jersey in Nurse Multistate Licensure Compact.
Reduces drug free school and public property zones to 200 feet.
The "Toxic-free Children's Products Act."
Requires hearing loss sensitivity training for public school pupils and teaching staff members.
Requires handgun ammunition to be encoded with serial number.
Expands definition of abused child to include youths between the ages of 18 and 21 who receive services from DCF.
Establishes division in Department of Treasury to oversee and enforce equal employment opportunity requirements with regard to public works contracts.
Permits direct shipping of wine to New Jersey consumers.
Eliminates 15% fee charged by cemetery company on transfer of graves, crypts and niches.
Authorizes SDA school districts to construct school facilities projects and receive State debt service aid.
Strengthens public disclosure and monitoring requirements of "Open Public Meetings Act".
Requires health insurers to provide benefits for magnetic resonance imaging for certain women at high risk for breast cancer.
Upgrades lewdness to fourth degree crime if committed in public rest room.
"Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Reform Act."
Enacts the "Freedom of Religion and Equality in Civil Marriage Act."
Requires cost analysis in certain cases when State department contracts out work.
Requires motor vehicle dealer to pay off loan on trade-in within seven days.
Permits advertising on exterior of school buses.
Requires 90-day notice of claim for actions brought under the New Jersey Civil Rights Act.
Requires applicants for liquor licenses and license transfers to notify residents within 200 feet of licensed premises.
Increases various fees charged by the sheriff's office and dedicates additional revenue to transportation costs of the sheriff's office.
Prohibits businesses that outsource jobs overseas from receiving State contracts or grants; prohibits investment of State funds in such businesses.
Creates Feral Cat Health Commission.
Changes signature requirement for recall petition and when recall may be initiated.
Establishes standardized energy audit and training program.
Changes title of animal cruelty investigator to "municipal humane law enforcement officer" and defines them in statute.
Prohibits sale of products containing dextromethorphan to minors under 18 years of age.
Removes confidential employee status of certain Casino Control Commission employees.
Permits counties, municipalities, and school districts to issue bonds to pay a portion of PERS and PFRS liability and other purposes under certain conditions for up to three budget years.
Establishes advocacy pilot program for mentally ill offenders.
Permits municipalities hosting UEZs to establish set-aside programs favoring local businesses for construction projects using State funds.
Requires newly manufactured handguns be micro-stamped.
Requires Secretary of State to provide voter registration forms to newly naturalized citizens.
Allows firms, designated as qualified UEZ businesses, that experience economic hardship to lower employment levels without losing that designation.
Extends filing deadline for school election candidate petition of nomination due to unforeseen closure.
Increases compensation for persons wrongfully imprisoned.
Disqualifies member of board of education for conviction of certain crimes and requires member to undergo criminal history background investigation.
Provides single sales fraction for corporation business tax income allocation formula and establishes airline-specific sales fraction.
Prohibits certain sales of alcoholic beverages within 1,000 feet of schools or religious institutions.
Requires mandatory registration of family day care providers.
Authorizes Commissioner of Education to increase the State share of certain county vocational school district school facilities projects.
Requires physicians, dentists and nurses to complete volunteer medical, dental and nursing services, as appropriate.
Addresses various concerns affecting post-release employment.
Allows application for PERS accidental disability benefit for injury sustained while employed at State psychiatric institution or correctional facility immediately prior to PERS membership.