[First Reprint]

SENATE, No. 1314

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED JUNE 6, 1996

By Senators LITTELL, INVERSO, LaRossa, Bennett,

Kyrillos and Ewing

An Act concerning the operation of the State Library and supplementing chapter 73 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.

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

    1. The Legislature finds and declares that:

    a. On May 2, 1996, Governor Whitman filed a reorganization plan providing for the transfer and reorganization of the Division of the State Library, which represents an ongoing effort to streamline and downsize the structure and functions of the Executive Branch in the interests of efficiency and economy;

    b. Under the plan, the Division of the State Library would be transferred from the Department of Education and reconstituted as a division within the Department of State;

    c. The purpose of the plan is to further concentrate the cultural and heritage functions of the State in a single department, to which the State Museum, Historical Commission, Bureau of Records Management and Archives sections were transferred in 1983, while focusing the core mission of the Department of Education on the elementary and secondary education of the children of this State; ¹and¹

    d. It is envisioned that under the plan, the Secretary of State may delegate certain responsibilities for the administration and operation of the State Library to a public institution of higher education¹[; and

    e. While the Governor is authorized under the "Executive Reorganization Act of 1969," P.L.1969, c.203 (C.52:14C-1 et seq.) to effect the transfer of the State Library, legislative action is needed to authorize the Secretary of State to delegate any responsibilities to a public institution of higher education]¹.

    2. The Secretary of State is authorized to delegate, through appropriate means, responsibility for the administration and operation of the State Library to a public institution of higher education and to transfer employees of the Division of the State Library to that institution as necessary. The public institution of higher education so delegated is authorized to accept that responsibility.

    3. This act shall take effect July 1, 1996.

Authorizes Secretary of State to delegate responsibility for operation of State Library to public insitution of higher education.