New Jersey-2012-A2416-Introduced

An Act concerning electric vehicle charging stations and amending P.L.1984, c.73.

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. Section 21 of P.L.1984, c.73 (C.27:1B-21) is amended to read as follows:

21. a. There is hereby established a separate fund entitled "Special Transportation Fund." This fund shall be maintained by the State Treasurer and may be held in depositories as may be selected by the treasurer and invested and reinvested as other funds in the custody of the treasurer, in the manner provided by law. The commissioner may from time to time (but not more frequently than monthly) certify to the authority an amount necessary to fund payments made, or anticipated to be made by or on behalf of the department, from appropriations established for or made to the department from revenues or other funds of the authority. The commissioner's certification shall be deemed conclusive for purposes of the act. The authority shall, within 15 days of receipt of the certificate, transfer from available funds of the authority to the treasurer for deposit in the Special Transportation Fund the amount certified by the commissioner, provided that all funds transferred shall only be expended by the department by project pursuant to appropriations made from time to time by the Legislature for the purposes of the act.

b. The department shall not expend any money except as appropriated by law. Commencing with appropriations for the fiscal years beginning on July 1, 1988, the department shall not expend any funds except as are appropriated by specific projects identified by a description of the projects, the county or counties within which they are located, and amounts to be expended on each project, in the annual appropriations act.

c. No funds appropriated, authorized or expended pursuant to this act shall be used to finance the resurfacing of highways by department personnel, where that resurfacing would require the use of more than 100,000 tons of bituminous concrete for that purpose in any calendar year, except that the commissioner may waive this provision when he determines the existence of emergency conditions requiring the use of department personnel for the resurfacing of highways, after the department has effectively reached the 100,000 ton limit.

d. In order to provide the department with flexibility in administering the specific appropriations by project identified in the annual appropriations act, the commissioner may transfer a part of
any item to any other item subject to the approval of the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting and of the Joint Budget Oversight Committee or its successor. Upon approval of the director and the committee, the transfer shall take effect.

e. Any federal funds which become available to the State for transportation projects which have not been appropriated to the department in the annual appropriations act, shall be deemed appropriated to the department and may, subject to approval by the Joint Budget Oversight Committee and the State Treasurer, be expended for any purpose for which such funds are qualified.

f. There shall be no appropriations from the revenues and other funds of the authority for regular and routine maintenance of public highways and components thereof, or operational activities of the department unrelated to the implementation of, and indirect costs associated with, the capital program. The commissioner shall include in his annual budget request sufficient funding to effectuate the purposes of P.L.2000, c.73 (C.27:1B-21.14 et al.).

g. To the extent that salaries or overhead of the department or the New Jersey Transit Corporation are charged to transportation projects, each agency shall keep adequate and truthful personnel records, and time charts to adequately justify each such charge and shall make those records available to the external auditor to the authority.

h. The commissioner shall annually, on or before January 1 of each fiscal year, report to the Governor and the Legislature how much money was expended in the previous fiscal year for salaries and overhead of the department and the New Jersey Transit Corporation. However, the amount expended from the revenues and other funds of the authority for salaries and overhead of the department and the New Jersey Transit Corporation for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2006 and each fiscal year thereafter1 shall not exceed 13 percent of the total funds appropriated from the revenues and other nonfederal funds of the authority for those fiscal years.

i. No revenues or other funds of the authority shall be expended for emergency response operations, the review of applications for access permits under the State highway access management code and membership fees or other fees connected with membership in TRANSCOM, the Transportation Operations Coordinating Committee.

j. In furtherance of the State's goal to mandate and administer greenhouse gas emission reductions and to promote the advancement or furtherance of new technologies, the department shall examine and encourage the development of plug-in electric motor vehicle charging stations as part of any project financed by the authority.

As used in this subsection:

"Charging station" means an electric recharging point complete with electric vehicle supply equipment that is capable of providing level 2 charging for plug-in electric motor vehicles;

"Electric vehicle supply equipment" means the conductors, including the underground, grounded, and equipment grounding conductors, and the electric vehicle connectors, attachment plugs, and all other fittings, devices, power outlets, or apparatuses that are installed specifically for the purpose of delivering electricity from the premises wiring to a plug-in electric motor vehicle;

"Level 2 charging" means providing 208-240 volt alternate current electricity to an onboard charger of a plug-in electric motor vehicle in a single phase with a maximum current specified at 32 continuous amps with a branch circuit breaker rated at 40 amps and the maximum continuous input power is specified as 7.68 kilowatts; and

"Plug-in electric motor vehicle" means a motor vehicle that is propelled to a significant extent by an electric motor which draws electricity from a battery that is capable of being recharged from an external source of electricity.

(cf: P.L.2006, c.3, s.2)

2. This act shall take effect on the first day of the sixth month next following enactment.

STATEMENT

This bill encourages the Department of Transportation to examine and promote the development of electric vehicle charging stations as part of any project financed by the Transportation Trust Fund Authority. An electric vehicle charging station supplies electricity for the recharging of plug-in electric vehicles.