LEGISLATIVE FISCAL ESTIMATE

ASSEMBLY, No. 5305

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

221st LEGISLATURE

 

DATED: FEBRUARY 25, 2025

 

 

SUMMARY

 

Synopsis:

Broadens public awareness signage to include notices in Chinese and Korean.

Type of Impact:

One-time State cost increase.            

Agencies Affected:

Department of Law and Public Safety.

 

 

Office of Legislative Services Estimate

Fiscal Impact

 

 

One-Time State Cost Increase

Indeterminate

 

 

 

 

 

·         The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) concludes that this bill will result in a one-time, indeterminate State cost increase for the Department of Law and Public Safety to provide the required translations for the updated human trafficking public awareness signs.

·         One provider of translation services that serves State government entities informed the OLS that it charges $0.15 per word to translate documents into Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) and Korean.  Document translations also incur an additional cost of $39.50 per hour for desktop publishing.

·         The website for the Department of Law and Public Safety provides business owners and other establishments with a downloadable sign that can be printed and displayed on their premises so as to be in compliance with current law.  The OLS does not anticipate the department having any additional costs to print and distribute the signage in Chinese and Korean, although some costs may be incurred to update the department’s website to provide links to the signs in the new languages.

BILL DESCRIPTION

 

      This bill broadens the public awareness signs containing the national, 24-hour hotline information about human trafficking to include translations in Chinese and Korean.  This bill is in response to the Commission of Investigation report released on October 17, 2024, entitled “An Inquiry into Human Trafficking Activity in the Massage and Bodywork Therapy Industry in New Jersey.”

 

 

FISCAL ANALYSIS

 

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

 

      None received.

 

OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE SERVICES

 

      The OLS concludes that this bill will result in a one-time, indeterminate State cost increase for the Department of Law and Public Safety to provide the required translations for the updated human trafficking public awareness signs.  One provider of translation services that serves State government entities informed the OLS that it charges $0.15 per word to translate documents into Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) and Korean.  Document translations also incur an additional cost of $39.50 per hour for desktop publishing.  Detailed below are the printable signs, in English and Spanish, currently available on the department’s website showing both the national, 24-hour toll-free hotline telephone service on human trafficking as well as the State’s hotline.

      The website for the Department of Law and Public Safety provides business owners and other establishments with a downloadable sign that can be printed and displayed on their premises so as to be in compliance with current law.  The OLS does not anticipate the department having any additional costs to print and distribute the signage in Chinese and Korean, although some costs may be incurred to update the department’s website to provide links to the signs in the new languages. 

 

  

      Human Trafficking Background - Human trafficking is the second-largest criminal industry in the world and is prevalent in every state in the United States.  New Jersey is considered particularly vulnerable to the proliferation of human trafficking due to its dense population and location along the I-95 corridor.  In 2023 alone, there were 480 reported cases to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in New Jersey.  There were 170 cases identified in 2023, and 246 victims were involved in these cases.

      During a 2022 Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee meeting, a representative from the New Jersey Coalition to End Domestic Violence indicated that women are the most likely to be sex trafficked, accounting for 94 percent of cases.  Of those cases, 40 percent were Black, and 24 percent were Latina. During the same meeting, a representative from the Department of Law and Public Safety, who works with a human trafficking task force out of the State Attorney General’s Office, indicated that roughly 100 human trafficking cases had been prosecuted in New Jersey from 2017-2022.

 

 

Section:

Law and Public Safety

Analyst:

Kristin Brunner Santos

Lead Fiscal Analyst

Approved:

Thomas Koenig

Legislative Budget and Finance Officer

 

 

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 (C.52:13B-6 et seq.).