STATEMENT TO

[First Reprint]

SENATE, No. 3049

with Senate Floor Amendments

(Proposed by Senator SWEENEY)

ADOPTED: JUNE 3, 2021

     These floor amendments provide that a regional municipal court pilot program established by the Administrative Office of the Courts pursuant to this bill shall be in no fewer than two counties.  Prior to the floor amendment the bill provided for no fewer than three counties.  The inclusion of no fewer than five municipalities in each county remains unchanged.

     The floor amendments provide criteria for qualifying as a county to be selected under section 1 of the bill.  A county shall have a population of less than 300,000 and a population density of less than 500 people per square mile according to the 2010 decennial census to qualify for the pilot program. If one county in a multi-county vicinage qualifies, all the counties in the vicinage qualify.  The term “qualified” is applied also in section 5 of the bill concerning when hearing cases shall commence.  Under these criteria the counties which qualify include:  Atlantic, Cape May, Salem, Cumberland, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Somerset, Warren, Morris and Sussex.

     The floor amendments in section 4 of the bill provide that municipal court judges sitting in the municipal courts selected under section 1 of the bill for the pilot program may be considered for appointment to the regional municipal court.