LEGISLATIVE FISCAL ESTIMATE TO

SENATE, No. 1008

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: MAY 31, 1996

      Senate Bill No. 1008 of 1996 adds the Emerald Society to the list of organizations specified in N.J.S.11A:6-10 for which a leave of absence with pay is provided to those police officers or firefighters who are duly authorized representatives of the organizations to attend any State or national convention of the organizations. The leave of absence is for the duration of the convention with a reasonable time allowed for travel to and from the convention.

      The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) has been advised by a representative of the Emerald Society that there are 10 chapters of the Emerald Society operating in New Jersey. Those ten chapters collectively have approximately 1,950 currently active members. The society has an executive board comprised of 20 State members and 8 representatives from each of the ten chapters, each of whom is eligible to attend the annual convention. Each town in a chapter is permitted to send one full-time paid police officer and one full-time paid firefighter to the annual three-day convention as delegates. (The representative stated that only full-time paid police officers and firefighters are eligible for membership in the Emerald Society.) The Emerald Society representative has advised the OLS that while there will be a cost to this bill of paying the salary of delegates while they attend the convention, the cost will be mitigated by the effects of swing-shift scheduling of personnel common in police and fire departments. A delegate would be required to be paid for the convention attendance only if the delegate were scheduled to work on any of the days that the convention is held. If any (or all) of those days are a delegate's scheduled days off, the delegate would not be required to be paid for those days.

      The OLS is not able to calculate the precise cost of this bill to the delegates' employers due to a lack of specific information regarding the identities of the delegates, the rate of pay of the delegates, and the uncertainties caused by the swing-shift scheduling of the delegates.

        This legislative fiscal estimate has been produced by the Office of Legislative Services due to the failure of the Executive Branch to respond to our request for a fiscal note.

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