ASSEMBLY COMMERCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
ASSEMBLY, No. 853
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: JANUARY 27, 2020
The Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 853.
This bill would prohibit municipalities from requiring a child to obtain a license or permit in order to operate a business temporarily. This bill is based upon a law enacted in Utah. News accounts out of Texas, Utah, and New York State reported incidents of government officials shutting down child-run lemonade stands for failing to secure licenses or permits. A similar problem, a municipality penalizing teenagers for soliciting work shoveling snow because they did not have a permit, led to the enactment of P.L.2015, c.240, a New Jersey law which prohibits municipalities from regulating the solicitation of snow shoveling services. This bill proposes a more broad approach to this general issue by allowing anyone under the age of 18 to occasionally operate a business without having first secured a local permit or license.
This bill was pre-filed for introduction in the 2020-2021 session pending technical review. As reported, the bill includes the changes required by technical review, which has been performed.