Bill Text: NJ S4399 | 2026-2027 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires municipality with over 4,000 residents to provide public with list of certain community service organizations.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2)
Status: (Introduced) 2026-06-04 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee [S4399 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2026-S4399-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator BENJIE E. WIMBERLY
District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Requires municipality with over 4,000 residents to provide public with list of certain community service organizations.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act requiring municipalities to provide the public with a list of community service organizations and supplementing chapter 48 of Title 40 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. A municipality with a population exceeding 4,000 residents, as of the most recent federal decennial census, shall develop and maintain a list of community service organizations in the area and the contact information for those organizations. A municipality shall publish the list on its Internet website free of charge or publish the list on an eligible online news publication available to the public free of charge. A municipality shall provide a notice in a prominent location on its Internet website if it publishes its list in an online news publication and shall publish a hyperlink to the online news publication.
b. As used in this section, a "community service organization" is an organization whose purpose is to provide voluntary services to the community or its residents to benefit the community.
c. A municipality shall update the published list once per year, on a date determined by the municipality.
d. A municipality shall not be liable for failing to update their published list to reflect that an organization is no longer in operation.
2. Each municipality may apply for reimbursement of actual costs related to the requirements pursuant to section 1 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) to the Division of Local Government Services in the Department of Community Affairs, in a manner and on any forms as determined by the department, and the department shall reimburse the municipality for those costs. The department shall include in its annual budget request to the Governor an amount equal to the moneys necessary to pay the reimbursement costs required pursuant to this section, and if applicable, any amount to cover any backlog of reimbursements. The Legislature shall appropriate the necessary funds to the department for the purposes of this section.
3. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires a municipality with a population exceeding 4,000 people to provide the public with a list of community service organizations in the area and such organizations' contact information. The bill requires a municipality to publish the list on its Internet website free of charge or publish the list on an eligible online news publication available to the public free of charge. A municipality that publishes its list in an online news publication is required to provide a notice in a prominent location on its official Internet website as well as a hyperlink to the online news publication. The bill requires a municipality to update the published list once per year, on a date determined by the municipality. Furthermore, a municipality is not liable for failing to update their published list to reflect that an organization is no longer in operation.
This bill defines "community service organization," as an organization whose purpose is to provide voluntary services to the community or its residents to benefit the community.
This bill allows each municipality to apply to the Division of Local Government Services in the Department of Community Affairs for reimbursement of actual costs related to compliance and requires the department to reimburse the municipality for those costs. The bill requires the department to include in its annual budget request to the Governor an amount equal to the moneys necessary to pay the reimbursement costs, and if applicable, any amount to cover any backlog of reimbursements. The bill requires the Legislature to appropriate the necessary funds to the department for these purposes.
