Sponsored by:
Assemblyman ERIK PETERSON
District 23 (Hunterdon, Somerset 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 distributed as follows:
(1) One-third shall be distributed to the "Municipal Court Administration Reimbursement Fund" pursuant to subsection b. of this section.
(2) Two-thirds shall be distributed 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] 2025, the number of drunk driving arrests in the municipality during calendar year [1980] 2020. 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.] , which shall be updated every ten years thereafter. Beginning January 15, [1984] 2025, 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] 2025, 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.
(cf: P.L.1990, c.41, s.7)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill revises the distribution of moneys in the Alcohol Education, Rehabilitation and Enforcement Fund, specifically the Municipal Court Administration Reimbursement Fund.
Currently the monies in the Municipal Court Administration Reimbursement Fund are distributed on a model which uses drunk driving arrest calculations certified in the early 1980s. This calculation does not take into consideration population shifts over 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 and requires that once calendar year 2020 is established as the base year to calculate the number of drunk driving arrests, the base year would be updated decennially, commencing in 2030 and thereafter.