Bill > A725

Introduced Session

This bill establishes a Veterinary Medicine Loan Redemption Program to address the current large animal veterinarian shortage in this State. The program will be administered by the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA). Specifically, the bill provides for redemption of eligible qualifying loan expenses for veterinarians who work for no less than five years at an approved site. An approved site is a site located within a State designated veterinary underserved area or within five miles of a State designated veterinary underserved area. The bill defines a State designated veterinary underserved area as a geographic area designated in this State by the Secretary of Agriculture, in consultation with the New Jersey Horse Council, the New Jersey Association of Equine Practitioners, the New Jersey Veterinary Medical Association, and the New Jersey Farm Bureau, on the basis of a large animal veterinarian shortage affecting the area. The secretary is required to annually establish a list of State designated veterinary underserved areas and transmit that list to HESAA. Program participants are required to be State residents and be a veterinarian licensed, or eligible to be licensed, to practice in this State, agree to practice at an approved site, and agree that the practice is full-time and that at least 75 percent of the participant's work is dedicated to large animal veterinary care. In return for this commitment, the program participant's eligible qualifying loan expenses will be reimbursed. Maximum loan redemption under the bill will equal 100 percent of the eligible qualifying loan expenses for full-time service in return for five years of service, except that the amount of qualifying loans which may be redeemed for a participant under the program is not to exceed $30,000 in any year. Under the bill, no amount of loan redemption is to be provided for service performed by a program participant that is less than full-time and for service in which less than 75 percent of the participant's work at an approved site is dedicated to large animal veterinary care. No amount of eligible qualifying loan expenses is to be redeemed for services performed for less than a full year. The bill provides that in the case of a program participant's death or total and permanent disability, HESAA will nullify the service obligation of the program participant. The nullification will also terminate HESAA's obligations under the loan redemption contract. In the event of a program participant's death or total and permanent disability, HESAA will not require repayment of the prior redeemed portion of indebtedness. The bill provides that $500,000 will be annually appropriated from the General Fund to HESAA for the Veterinary Medicine Loan Redemption Program. Since New Jersey currently does not have its own veterinary medicine school, the provisions of this bill are intended to establish a cost-effective path to addressing the large animal veterinarian shortage by incentivizing veterinary school graduates to reside in the State and practice in areas of the State experiencing large animal veterinarian shortages. From 1990 to 2007, the State provided for a "contract" program with veterinary schools in other states to "buy" seats reserved exclusively for New Jersey students. This program allowed New Jersey residents vying for seats at out-of-State veterinary schools to only compete against each other for those seats, not the entire population of applicants at large. The program also provided funding that permitted those students to attend the out-of-State veterinary schools at in-State tuition rates. However, this program resulted in residents leaving the State for veterinary school, with no promise that they would return to practice in New Jersey. Several other states have implemented veterinary loan redemption programs similar to the program established by this bill, including Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Texas, and Wyoming. The program established by this bill will incentivize residents of this State, who attend out-of-State veterinary schools, to return to New Jersey to perform services in a veterinary practice that is dedicated to large animal veterinary care, in exchange for a redemption of their veterinary school loans over a relatively short period of time. This program will provide enormous benefits for large animal owners living in areas of this State with a shortage of adequate veterinary medicine services. Additionally, this program will not penalize program participants with respect to tax liability. Under current federal and State law, amounts of student loan redemption, loan forgiveness, or loan cancellation are not considered income for purposes of taxation.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Mike Torrissi (R)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Higher Education Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document