(TRENTON) — Assembly Majority Leader Select Louis D. Greenwald (D-Camden) issued a multimedia package Monday on his legislation that would remove the three-day waiting period and streamline residency requirements currently in place for individuals wishing to obtain a marriage or civil union license.
Under the bill (A-4366) the current mandatory 72-hour waiting period between when a marriage license is applied for and when it is issued would be eliminated, giving New Jersey’s wedding industry a competitive advantage over neighboring states. The measure also would streamline the application process and allow New Jersey residents to apply for their marriage licenses in the municipality where the ceremony is being held or in the municipality in which they reside. Under current law, a New Jersey resident can only obtain a license from the municipality in which they reside.
The multimedia package consists of a video of Majority Leader Select Greenwald discussing his legislation and the boost it will give to the state’s tourism, wedding and ancillary industries and audio and a transcript of same.
The video can be accessed directly via our website — www.assemblydems.com — or by clicking here.
The audio file is available upon request.
A transcript of comments from Majority Leader Select Greenwald is appended below:
Assembly Majority Leader Select Louis D. Greenwald (D-Camden):
“The current waiting period is three days. The current period requires that you be a resident of the town and get the license within the town in which you live. And what this bill will do is allow for New Jersey to now be on par with 27 other states in the country; not lose the competitive advantage where they can have a license issued on the same day.
“And while we started this around trying to deal with the loss of revenue around Atlantic City, we started to hear from destination resorts across the state — from Cape May County all the way up to Bergen County — where people had wedding locations and that planning around the wedding has become a booming industry in other states and New Jersey had an opportunity to really capitalize on that.
“The positive impact on the ancillary businesses, if you think about the growth in the wedding market in New Jersey, whether it’s at the casinos or at the Brownstone in Paterson, the people that will be coming in to take advantage of those locations — buying tuxedos, flower arrangements, catering halls, receptions, the brunch the next day after a wedding that many families participate in, the rehearsal dinner prior to — all of that is stimulated by a growth in this industry and I think New Jersey is uniquely poised because of our… because of who we are, because of what we bring.
“And the reality is that, if they can come in and get same-day service around that licensing and nothing else has changed: not the requirements for the license, not the data that you have to provide to show that you’re a citizen. But literally, if nothing else changes except for that waiting period, it’s going to allow a lot more people to come to New Jersey and spend their money.”