The bill establishes the Gold Star Family Scholarship Program within the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA) to provide scholarships for eligible family members of service members who lost their lives while on active duty. Eligible recipients include spouses, children, parents, guardians, and siblings of these service members. HESAA will set the criteria for scholarship eligibility and determine the award amounts, which cannot exceed the average tuition charged by four-year public institutions in New Jersey. The bill also creates a non-lapsing Gold Star Family Scholarship Fund, which will be funded through various sources, including a $2 annual surcharge on personalized license plates and voluntary contributions from taxpayers via their income tax returns.

To support the establishment of this program, the bill appropriates $100,000 from the General Fund to the Gold Star Family Scholarship Fund. The fund will consist of legislative appropriations, taxpayer contributions, and investment earnings. The bill outlines the procedures for the collection of contributions and specifies that any administrative costs incurred by the Division of Taxation will be deducted from the receipts before being deposited into the fund. The provisions of the bill will take effect at different times, with the scholarship program and fund established immediately, while the tax contribution option will begin in the first full tax year following enactment.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 39:3-33