FISCAL NOTE TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 706

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: JUNE 19, 1997

      Assembly Bill No. 706 of 1996 requires full-time paid members of a paid or part-paid fire department or municipal fire district to satisfactorily complete within six months of a promotion to supervisory positions other than chief, a training program formulated or approved by the Division of Fire Safety in the Department of Community Affairs. The curriculum is to be based on National Fire Protection Association Standard 1021 and consist of 160 hours of instruction offered in central locations throughout the State over a period of at least four weeks. Any modules of the course that are initially failed must be retaken until passed.

      Within six months of a promotion to battalion chief or deputy chief, a full-time fire officer must also be certified as having completed a nationally recognized hazardous materials on-scene incident command course.

      The bill does not require volunteer firefighters promoted to the relevant supervisory positions to complete these training courses, but the training must be made available to volunteers who wish to participate. Only firefighters who have been promoted after the enactment of this bill are subject to its provisions.

      The State is responsible for covering the expenses associated with this training, including the cost of food and lodging at training facilities and travel expenses that would not have otherwise been incurred in the normal course of employment. The bill appropriates $500,000 from the General Fund to the Division of Fire Safety for this purpose.

      The Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has advised the Office of Legislative Services (OLS) that, since the Division of Fire Safety is entirely fee-supported, the bill will only affect general State funds if the Legislature wishes to appropriate the money that would make it possible to avoid raising all other fire code fees in order to cover the deficit that the DCA feels would be created by the bill's enactment. The DCA bases its determination on the Division of Fire Safety's previous experience and past studies concerning officer training. The DCA envisions that the $500,000 appropriation in the bill would be administered by the Division of Fire Safety as a grant-in-aid to Rutgers, the State University, and to county and regional fire academies for the development and delivery of the programs required by the bill.

      The OLS has no information that would indicate a fiscal impact that differs from that expressed by the DCA.

This fiscal note has been prepared pursuant to P.L.1980, c.67.