Film & Digital Media Tax Credit, Combating Overdoses, Helping Biz Make Energy Improvements, Securing Personal Health Info, Expediting Vacant Building Maintenance & Modernized Corporate Laws Also on Tap
(TRENTON) – More higher education reform, protecting New Jersey’s greenhouse gas reduction regulations, withdrawing New Jersey from the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, expanding the state’s film and digital media production tax credit program, increasing transparency for appealing property tax assessments and improving drug treatment for inmates are among the highlights for Thursday’s Assembly committee meetings.
Combating drug overdoses, helping businesses making energy efficiency or conservation improvements, new consumer protections, securing personal health information, expediting the process for foreclosing vacant and abandoned residential properties in uncontested actions and modernizing New Jersey’s corporate laws are also on tap.
The committees are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. and will be streamed live at:
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/media/live_audio.asp.
Highlights include:
· A-2803 (Cryan/Riley/Benson/Garcia) – Requires independent colleges report certain consumer information on their websites; requires information on remedial instruction to be provided by public and independent colleges; directs how remedial education is delivered at public and certain independent colleges; A-2804 (Giblin/Riley/Cryan/Benson) – Requires county colleges to develop plan to achieve three-year graduation rate of at least 33 percent for full-time degree-program students by 2019-2020 academic year; A-2808 (Giblin/Eustace/Riley/Benson) – Directs Secretary of Higher Education to study prevalence, cost, and quality of on-line courses compared to traditional classroom courses offered by institutions of higher education; A-2809 (Cryan/Riley/Quijano/Pinkin/Moriarty) – Requires institutions of higher education to develop open textbooks available to students at no charge and requires buyback of used textbooks at 50 percent of purchase price; A-2811 (Cryan/Riley/Mazzeo/Pinkin) – Prohibits four-year public and independent institutions of higher education from requiring students to purchase meal plans and permits the institutions to only offer meal plans in the form of a spending allowance; A-2813 (Cryan/Burzichelli/Riley/Benson/Garcia) – Requires closure of a four-year public institution of higher education that fails to achieve a six-year graduation rate of at least 50% for full-time undergraduate students; A-2816 (Cryan/Riley/Pinkin/Lagana) – Requires State Auditor to conduct audit of fees charged by public institutions of higher education; and A-2818 (Stender/Riley/Cryan/Lagana) – Requires certain undergraduate students to file degree plan and requires public institutions of higher education to develop pathway systems to graduation. 10:30 Higher Education.
· ACR189 (McKeon/Lagana) – Determines that proposed DEP rules and regulations repealing rules and regulations concerning State participation in greenhouse gas cap and trade programs are inconsistent with legislative intent. 2 p.m. Regulatory Oversight.
· A3506 (Mainor/Quijano/Giblin/Wimberly/Pintor Marin/Spencer) – Directs Governor to withdraw from compact establishing Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor; dissolves compact and commission; transfers commission’s NJ operations to State Police. 2 p.m. Law and Public Safety.
· A2474 (Johnson/Garcia/Vainieri Huttle/Lagana/Mukherji) – “Garden State Film and Digital Media Jobs Act”; expands existing film and digital media production tax credit programs. 2 p.m. Commerce and Economic Development.
· A3566 (Pinkin/Lagana/Riley/Mazzeo) – Requires annual notice of assessment on property to contain bolded notice of filing deadline for appeal. 2 p.m. Housing and Community Development.
· A3159 (Gusciora) – Requires that certain inmates with detainers be provided access to drug treatment programs. 2 p.m. Law and Public Safety.
· A3715 (Conaway/Benson/Mukherji) – Directs poison control and drug information program to establish clearinghouse of drug overdose information, report on trends, and provide education on safe storage and disposal of medications; appropriates $500,000. 10 a.m. Health and Senior Services.
· A3720 (Conaway/N. Munoz/Lampitt/Pinkin) – Extends “Overdose Prevention Act” immunity provisions to certain professionals and professional entities, and requires needle exchange programs to obtain standing order for opioid antidote dispensation; appropriates $500,000. 10 a.m. Health and Senior Services.
· The Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee will also hear testimony on issues concerning opioid abuse and addiction in New Jersey.
· A943 (Singleton/Conaway/Moriarty/Green/Lampitt/Mazzeo) – Permits small businesses to qualify for loans from NJEDA for costs of energy audit and making energy efficiency or conservation improvements. 2 p.m. Commerce and Economic Development.
· A207 (Gusciora/Space/Lagana) – Eliminates award of attorneys’ fees, filing fees and costs of suit for technical violation of the consumer fraud act. 10 a.m. Consumer Affairs.
· A1892 (Burzichelli) – Provides that rental companies cannot rent, lease or sell unrepaired motor vehicles which are subject to safety recall. 10 a.m. Consumer Affairs.
· A1004 (Benson/Moriarty/Wisniewski) – Prohibits automatic renewal of service contracts. 10 a.m. Consumer Affairs.
· A2933 (Pinkin) – Prohibits unsolicited telemarketing sales calls to commercial mobile service devices. 10 a.m. Consumer Affairs.
· A3146 (Singleton/Caputo/Jasey/Lagana/Quijano) – Requires disclosure of breach of security of online account. 10 a.m. Consumer Affairs.
· A3019 (Singleton/Conaway/Andrzejczak/Mazzeo/Riley/Garcia/Mosquera) – Requires State Employment and Training Commission to prepare annual report on State workforce. 2 p.m. Commerce and Economic Development.
· A3322 (Schaer/Garcia/Lagana) – Requires health insurance carriers to encrypt certain information. 10 a.m. Financial Institutions and Insurance.
· A3793 (Garcia/Coughlin/Green/McKeon/Andrzejczak/Fuentes) – Provides expedited process for foreclosing vacant and abandoned residential properties in uncontested actions. 2 p.m. Housing and Community Development.
· A3684 (Coughlin) – Requires AG to remove information from website concerning persons indicted or prosecuted for crimes under certain circumstances. 2 p.m. Law and Public Safety.
· A2842 (Diegnan/Mainor) – Clarifies that corporation may adopt “force the vote” provision in plan of merger or consolidation; allows directors to amend plan of merger or consolidation prior to effectiveness of plan; A3612 (Diegnan) – Clarifies that corporate directors may approve actions without a meeting by electronic transmission; A3614 (Diegnan) – Revises applicability of law concerning derivative proceedings and shareholder class actions; A3615 (Diegnan) – Permits corporation to impose reasonable limitations or conditions on use or distribution of books and records by shareholders; and A3616 (Diegnan) – Revises circumstances in which certain corporate officers are provided immunity from liability. 10 a.m. Financial Institutions and Insurance and 2 p.m. Commerce and Economic Development.
· The Assembly Regulatory Oversight Committee at 2 p.m. will hear testimony regarding the statutorily mandated report on the implementation of the E-Waste Recycling Plan that has not been filed by the Department of Environmental Protection.