Bill > A5061

Introduced Session

This bill, designated as the "P.I.C.K. Awareness Act," authorizes the Chief Administrator (chief administrator) of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (commission) to issue special support recovery license plates. Parents in Connection for Kids, Inc., commonly known as P.I.C.K. Awareness, is a non-profit organization that seeks to provide substance abuse treatment resources and referrals and substance abuse awareness and prevention education to parents of children with alcohol and drug addictions. The Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (division) within the Department of Human Services (department) provides and partners with various non-profit organizations to provide recovery support services, which are non-clinical services that that facilitate recovery and wellness to improve the quality of life of individuals with drug and alcohol addiction and their families. It is the sponsor's intent that this bill will reduce homelessness as a barrier to recovery and will provide a sustainable funding source for indigent individuals with alcohol and drug addictions who are in an emergent situation or crisis and need housing in a sober living environment to reduce relapse by assisting individuals break the cycle of addiction. The bill provides that the design of the support recovery license plate is to display an emblem, consisting of an image of a compass rose with cardinal direction indicators enclosed in a circle, and the words "SUPPORT RECOVERY" beneath the image. The chief administrator is to, in consultation with the Commissioner of Human Services and Parents in Connection for Kids, Inc., select the design and color scheme of the support recovery license plates. In addition to all fees otherwise required by law for the registration of a motor vehicle, there is an application fee of $50 and an annual renewal fee of $10 for the support recovery license plates. After the deduction of the cost of designing, producing, issuing, renewing, and publicizing the plates and of any computer programming changes that are necessary to implement the license plate program, in an amount not to exceed $150,000, the additional fees will be deposited into a special non-lapsing fund known as the "Support Recovery License Plate Fund." The proceeds of the fund are to be annually appropriated to the division to be used to secure permanent sober living housing for individuals who have completed substance abuse treatment or temporary sober living housing for individuals waiting to be placed in a substance abuse treatment program. The proceeds of the fund that are to be appropriated to the division are not to be provided to any individual seeking housing assistance but may be provided to housing facilities to be used as deposits or monthly rent payments for individuals seeking housing assistance. The chief administrator is required to annually certify the average cost of producing, issuing, renewing, and publicizing the availability of the specialty license plates. If the average cost per plate exceeds $50 in two consecutive fiscal years, the chief administrator may discontinue the support recovery license plate program. The bill also requires that the Commissioner of Human Services appoint a liaison to represent the department in all communications with the commission regarding the support recovery license plates. The bill provides that State or other public funds are not to be used by the commission for the initial cost to implement the support recovery license plate program. The bill requires an individual or entity designated by the department, to contribute non-public monies, not to exceed $25,000, to offset the initial costs to design, produce, issue, and publicize the license plates. The bill authorizes the department to receive funds from private sources to be used to offset the initial costs. The chief administrator is not required to design, produce, issue, or publicize the availability of the support recovery license plates, until: (1) the individual or entity designated by the department has provided the commission with the money necessary to offset the initial costs incurred by the commission in establishing the support recovery license plate program; and (2) the department's liaison has provided the commission with a minimum of 500 completed applications for the support recovery license plates. The provisions of the bill will remain inoperative until the appropriate applications and fees required to offset the initial costs incurred by the commission are provided by the department's liaison. The bill expires after 12 months if sufficient applications and fees to offset the initial costs are not received.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Joseph Egan (D)*,  Sean Kean (R)*, 

Passed by the Assembly (68-0-0) (on 01/08/2018)

Official Document