ASSEMBLY HOMELAND SECURITY AND STATE PREPAREDNESS COMMITTEE

 

STATEMENT TO

 

ASSEMBLY, No. 3742

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

DATED:  APRIL 5, 2018

 

      The Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 3742.

      As reported by the committee, this bill requires 9-1-1 service facilities, within three years following the bill’s enactment, to be equipped with a Next Generation 9-1-1 system approved by the Office of Emergency Telecommunications Services for the processing of requests for emergency services sent via electronic or text message. The bill temporarily increases the 9-1-1 System and Emergency Response Fee by 10 percent, and requires that those fees only be used to fund the 9-1-1 service facilities with the enhanced Next Generation 9-1-1 systems.

      The bill establishes a funding prioritization for equipping public safety answering points with Next Generation 9-1-1 systems, by requiring funding to be distributed to county, regionalized, or other large centralized public safety answering points before funding other public safety answering points.

      Currently, the 9-1-1 System and Emergency Response Fee, which is used to fund the 9-1-1 system, is a $0.90 monthly fee imposed on mobile service customers and telephone company customers in this State. The bill increases the monthly fee to $0.99. The temporary fee increase will be imposed for billing periods ending on or after this bill’s operative date and only for a period of 36 calendar months following the operative date.

      The bill provides that a person is guilty of a crime of the fourth degree if the person knowingly sends an electronic message to a 9-1-1 emergency telephone system without purpose of reporting the need for 9-1-1 service. A crime of the fourth degree is punishable by a fine of not more than $10,000, imprisonment for a term of not more than 18 months, or both.