ASSEMBLY, No. 1395

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

By Assemblywoman WEINBERG and Assemblyman ZISA

An Act providing funding for certain smoking prevention programs, amending and supplementing P.L.1948, c.65, and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. Section 301 of P.L.1948, c.65 (C.54:40A-8) is amended to read as follows:

    301. Tax imposed; rate. A tax is hereby imposed on the sale, use or possession for sale or use within this State of all cigarettes at the rate of [$0.02] $0.0325 for each cigarette.

(cf: P.L.1990, c.39, s.15)

    2. (New section) Each retail licensee under P.L.1948, c.65 (C.54:40A-1 et seq.) shall, on or before July 1, 1996, file a return under oath or certified under the penalties of perjury, with the director on forms furnished by the director, showing the amount of cigarettes in the retail licensee’s possession in the State at 12:01 a.m. on July 1, 1996, and shall at the time of filing that return pay the tax implemented pursuant to P.L. , c. (pending before the Legislature as this bill) to the director. Failure to obtain such forms shall not be an excuse for the failure to make a return containing the information required by the director.

    3. (New section) a. There is established the “Youth Smoking Prevention Fund” in the Department of Health. The fund shall be comprised of revenues as provided in subsection c. of this section, and of revenues from such other sources as the Legislature may determine. Interest earned on the monies in the fund shall be credited to the fund.

    The fund shall be a nonlapsing fund dedicated for use by the State to provide grants to municipal health departments for education and prevention programs to reduce smoking and other tobacco usage by minors. The Commissioner of Health shall establish criteria for awarding grants from the fund in consultation with at least three municipal health departments each from the northern, central and southern regions of the State, respectively.

    b. The fund shall be administered by a person appointed by the Commissioner of Health. The administrator is responsible for overseeing and coordinating the collection and disbursement of fund monies .

    c. The revenues raised from the $0.0125 per cigarette increase in the tax collected under the provisions of section 301 of P.L.1948, c.65 (C.54:40A-8) that was implemented pursuant to section 1 of P.L. ,  c.       (pending before the c. C. Legislature as this bill) shall be deposited annually in the Youth Smoking Prevention Fund.

    4. (New section) The Commissioner of Health, pursuant to the “Administrative Procedure Act,” P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), shall adopt rules and regulations to effectuate the purposes of section 3 of P.L. , c. (C. )(pending before the Legislature as this bill).

    5. This act shall take effect on July 1, 1996, except that the Director of the Division of Taxation in the Department of the Treasury and the Commissioner of Health may take such anticipatory administrative action in advance as shall be necessary for the implementation of the act.

STATEMENT

    This bill provides a permanent source of revenue for municipal education and prevention programs to reduce smoking and other tobacco usage by minors, by increasing the tax on cigarettes by $0.25 a pack and dedicating the revenues from the increase to these programs. The revenues, which shall be deposited in a new “Youth Smoking Prevention Fund” in the Department of Health, shall be provided to municipal health departments as grants by the department for these education and prevention programs.

Increases cigarette tax $.25 and dedicates revenues to smoking prevention programs for minors.