SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

 

STATEMENT TO

 

[First Reprint]

SENATE, No. 985

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

DATED: JUNE 20, 1996

 

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 985.

      Senate Bill No. 985 requires that local governments be compensated at a per diem rate established by law when State inmates are housed in local governmental facilities. The bill further provides that a local governmental unit must receive reasonable compensation whenever the State excercises emergency powers pursuant to P.L.1969, c.22 (C.30:4-91.2), P.L.1994, c.12 or P.L.1996, c.9, that entail the use and operation of a local governmental facility in addition to the placement of State inmates at that local governmental facility.

      The bill establishes a minimum rate that must be paid by the State when it takes over the operation of a facility pursuant to the State's statutory emergency powers concerning the housing of inmates if the facility had previously been leased by the State from a local governmental unit. For any State use of the local governmental facility on and after January 1, 1995, this minimum rate is set at 75 percent of the lease or use rate agreed upon by the State and the local governmental unit prior to the State's exercise of its emergency powers.

 

FISCAL IMPACT

      This bill will require an annual payment of $4.5 million to Hudson County by the State for the use of facilities in Kearny and Secaucus to house State inmates for the Department of Corrections. During Fiscal Year 1994, the State entered into a lease agreement with Hudson County to use two county jail facilities to house 632 State inmates at a rate of $6 million per year. The State is currently negotiating with the county for a revised lease rate.