Bill Text: NJ S1602 | 2018-2019 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Revises distribution of Alcohol Education, Rehabilitation and Enforcement Fund.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-02-05 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee [S1602 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2018-S1602-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator STEVEN V. OROHO
District 24 (Morris, Sussex and Warren)
SYNOPSIS
Revises distribution of Alcohol Education, Rehabilitation and Enforcement Fund.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the Alcohol Education, Rehabilitation and Enforcement Fund and amending P.L.1983, c.531.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 6 of P.L.1983, c.531 (C.26:2B-35) is amended to read as follows:
6. a. Moneys dedicated for enforcement from the Alcohol Education, Rehabilitation and Enforcement Fund shall be deposited and distributed as follows:
(1) One-third shall be [distributed to] deposited in the "Municipal Court Administration Reimbursement Fund" for distribution pursuant to subsection b. of this section.
(2) Two-thirds shall be [distributed] deposited in the "Drunk Driving Enforcement Fund" established pursuant to section 1 of P.L.1984, c.4 (C.39:4-50.8).
b. [(1) Each municipality in this State shall present to the Administrative Office of the Courts, before December 31, 1983, the number of drunk driving arrests in the municipality during calendar year 1980. This number shall be the base year number of arrests. In any municipality in which the number of drunk driving arrests for calendar year 1980 exceeds the average of the number of drunk driving arrests for calendar years 1979 and 1981, that municipality may substitute the lower average figure as the base figure for the calculation in this subsection. The municipality shall certify this substitution in writing to the Administrative Office of the Courts within 90 days of the effective date of this 1986 amendatory act. Once a substituted base year figure is used, it may not thereafter be changed. Beginning January 15, 1984, and each year thereafter the municipality shall report to the Administrative Office of the Courts the number of drunk driving arrests made in its municipality during the preceding calendar year.
(2) The Administrative Office of the Courts shall certify the amounts submitted by each municipality and shall calculate for each municipality any increase in the number of arrests between the base year and the number of arrests reported for the preceding calendar year. The Administrative Office of the Courts shall then calculate the sum of all increases for all municipalities reporting.
(3) Beginning for calendar year 1983, the following fraction shall be calculated for each municipality:
The increase in drunk driving arrests in the municipality between the base year and the preceding year over the total of increases in drunk driving arrests between the base year and the preceding year in all reporting municipalities in the State.
This fraction shall be multiplied by the total amount of the money available in the "Municipal Court Administration Reimbursement Fund" in the preceding calendar year. This amount shall be allocated to the municipality for the purpose of maintaining its municipal court, which may include payments to municipal court judges, municipal prosecutors and other municipal court personnel for work performed in addition to regular employment hours] Within 45 days of receiving notification from the Department of the Treasury of the amount deposited in the "Municipal Court Administration Reimbursement Fund" during the preceding calendar year, the Administrative Office of the Courts shall:
(1) determine, for the preceding calendar year, the total number of persons charged with a violation of any provision of Title 39 involving driving while intoxicated or refusal to submit to a chemical test and the number of these charges for each jurisdiction;
(2) determine the base allocation rate by dividing the total amount of money deposited in the "Municipal Court Administration Reimbursement Fund" in the preceding calendar year by the total number of persons charged with a violation of any provision of Title 39 involving driving while intoxicated or refusal to submit to a chemical test during the preceding calendar year;
(3) calculate each jurisdiction's allocation from the "Municipal Court Administration Reimbursement Fund" by multiplying the base allocation rate by the number of persons charged with a violation of any provision of Title 39 involving driving while intoxicated or refusal to submit to a chemical test in each jurisdiction during the preceding calendar year; and
(4) notify the Department of the Treasury of each jurisdiction's allocation from the "Municipal Court Administration Reimbursement Fund" so that appropriate distributions can be made.
c. All distributions from the "Municipal Court Administration Reimbursement Fund" pursuant to this section shall be used for the purpose of maintaining and enhancing a municipal court's ability to adjudicate violations of any provision of Title 39 involving driving while intoxicated or refusal to submit to a chemical test.
For the purposes of this section, "jurisdiction" shall mean a municipality or a county of this State which has established a municipal court pursuant to N.J.S.2B:12-1, or the State of New Jersey which operates the Court of Palisades Interstate Park pursuant to R.S.32:14-23.
(cf: P.L.1990, c.41, s.7)
2. This act shall take effect immediately, and shall apply to the distribution of funds deposited in the Municipal Court Administration Reimbursement Fund during calendar year 2016, except that if the date of enactment occurs after the Administrative Office of the Courts has reported the allocation for deposits made during calendar year 2016 to the Department of Treasury, the act shall apply to money deposited in the Municipal Court Administration Reimbursement Fund beginning with deposits made during calendar year 2017.
STATEMENT
This bill revises the distribution of monies in the Alcohol Education, Rehabilitation and Enforcement Fund, specifically the "Municipal Court Administration Reimbursement Fund."
Currently the distribution of the "Municipal Court Administration Reimbursement Fund" is distributed on a model which uses calculations certified in the early 1980s. This calculation does not take into consideration population shifts of the last 30 years and thus is not considered an adequate or equitable distribution method.
This bill updates the calculation to establish a more equitable distribution of the funds.
