Bill > S2611

Introduced Session

This bill establishes a program to incentivize the hiring and continued employment of individuals with developmental disabilities. The bill authorizes the Director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities in the Department of Human Services to allocate up to $2,000,000 of tax credits for the program for each calendar year beginning on the January 1 next following the bill's date of enactment. Under the bill, the director would be required to administer the program, which would provide corporation business tax and gross income tax credits to certified employers for hiring and employing individuals with developmental disabilities in the State. The bill defines "developmental disability" as a severe, chronic disability that: (1) is attributable to a mental or physical impairment or combination of mental or physical impairments; (2) is manifest before age 22; (3) is likely to continue indefinitely; (4) results in substantial functional limitations in an area of major life activity; and (5) reflects the need for a combination and sequence of special interdisciplinary or generic care, treatment, or other services that are of lifelong or extended duration and are individually planned and coordinated. Developmental disability includes, but is not limited to, severe disabilities attributable to an intellectual disability, autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, spina bifida, or other neurological impairments where the above criteria are met. To participate in the program, an employer is required to apply annually to the Division of Developmental Disabilities in the Department of Human Services to claim a tax credit based on the number of hours worked by eligible individuals hired and employed by the employer during the preceding calendar year. The director is required to issue a tax credit certificate to certified employers by March 31 of each year. Under the bill, a certified employer would be entitled to a tax credit equal to the product of $1 multiplied by the number of hours worked by each eligible individual hired and employed by the certified employer during that individual's period of employment, provided that a credit is not allowed unless the individual has worked in the State for a minimum of 500 hours for the employer. To satisfy this requirement, an employer may elect to either: (1) compute and claim the credit for the calendar year based on an eligible individual's hours worked by December 31 of that year, provided that the individual has worked in excess of 500 hours between the date of hire and December 31; or (2) include those hours worked by the eligible individual in the computation of the credit in the year immediately succeeding the year in which the individual was hired, in which case the credit would be computed on the basis of all hours worked by the individual from the date of hire to the earlier of the last day of employment or December 31 of the year immediately succeeding the individual's date of hire. However, to the extent that the total amount claimed by all certified employers exceeds the amount allocated for the program in a calendar year, the director would be required to issue credits on a pro rata basis corresponding to each certified employer's share of the total claimed amount. The bill prohibits certified employers from claiming a tax credit for hours worked by an eligible individual in excess of 2,000 hours, and caps the amount of the credit at $2,000 per eligible individual. In addition, the bill prohibits employers from claiming a tax credit more than once with respect to any eligible individual, and prohibits employers from aggregating the hours worked by two or more eligible individuals to reach the minimum number of hours required under the program.

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Vin Gopal (D)*,  Kristin Corrado (R), 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Economic Growth Committee (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document