STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 2677

with Senate Floor Amendments

(Proposed by Senator SINGLETON)

ADOPTED: MAY 26, 2022

These Senate amendments:

      (1)  delete the creation of a “New Jersey Black Cultural and Heritage Commission” and provide, instead, for the New Jersey Historical Commission to identify the Black heritage sites and create the Black Heritage Trail required by the bill;

      (2)  prohibit the use of public funds to produce, purchase, or erect markers or signs on private property, but allow the commission to receive gifts, grants, or other financial assistance from private sources for the purpose of funding or reimbursing the commission for costs associated with reviewing, producing,  purchasing, or erecting any historical marker and entering into agreements related thereto including, but not limited to, with private sources, and non-governmental, non-profit, educational, or charitable entities or institutions;

      (3)  allow the New Jersey Black Cultural and Heritage Initiative Foundation to use funds to purchase, erect, and maintain historical markers as approved by the New Jersey Historical Commission, indicating thereon the persons, places, or events commemorated and having such other suitable inscription as the commission may deem necessary;

      (4)  revise and clarify the provisions concerning the Internet site providing information on the New Jersey Black Heritage Trail to be established by the Division of Travel and Tourism in the Department of State, and remove the requirements to provide driving directions, tour information, owner contact information, and certain itineraries on that Internet site; and

      (5)  appropriate $1 million to the Department of State for the purposes of establishing historical markers by the New Jersey Historical Commission required under current law and under the bill, and to fund any other markers, and to otherwise effectuate the purposes of the bill.