Sponsored by:
Senator JEAN STANFIELD
District 8 (Atlantic, Burlington and Camden)
SYNOPSIS
Permits municipalities to publish legal notices in certain newspapers.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act permitting municipalities to publish legal notices in certain newspapers and supplementing chapter 53 of Title 40 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. Notwithstanding any law, rule, or regulation to the contrary, whenever a municipality, municipal agency, or any municipal officer or employee is required by law to publish a legal notice in one or more newspapers, the municipality, municipal agency, officer or employee may satisfy the publication requirement by publishing the legal notice in a qualified newspaper.
b. For the purposes of this section:
"Municipal agency" means any division, board, bureau, office, commission, or other instrumentality within or created by a municipality, and any independent authority, commission, instrumentality or agency created by a municipality.
"Qualified newspaper" means a newspaper that:
(1) is published and circulates at least once each week, for at least 48 weeks of each year;
(2) prints a minimum of 25 percent of the published words, in each publication of the newspaper, in English;
(3) is available and easily accessible in printed form to the public in the municipality generally; and
(4) generally contains information of interest or value to the public in the municipality.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill permits municipalities to publish legal notices in certain qualified newspapers. Under the bill, a municipality, municipal agency, or any municipal officer or employee may satisfy legal notice publication requirements by publishing the legal notice in a qualified newspaper. The bill provides that a "qualified newspaper" means a newspaper that is published at least weekly, as specified in the bill, with at least 25 percent of the newspaper’s words in English, is generally available to the public in the municipality, and contains information of interest to the public in the municipality.