SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

[First Reprint]

SENATE, No. 1000

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  February 3, 2025

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 1000 (1R).

      As amended and reported, this bill requires the Chief Administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (commission) to add a designation on a motor vehicle’s registration information indicating the registrant is deaf or hard of hearing if the person applies for the designation.  The designation would only appear when a law enforcement officer accesses the motor vehicle's license plate information through the commission’s online interface with law enforcement agencies, and is only to be used to alert the law enforcement officer that the person is deaf or hard of hearing.

     The designation would be added to the applicant’s motor vehicle registration information provided the applicant has a hearing loss as demonstrated by the pure tone average of 500, 1,000, and 2,000 Hertz, of 41 dB or greater, in the better ear, aided or unaided.  As part of the application process, an otorhinolaryngologist (ENT) or an audiologist clinically certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association or licensed by the State of New Jersey is required to verify the applicant’s hearing ability.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to update the bill’s title and synopsis to clarify that the designation required to be placed on certain individuals’ motor vehicle registration information by the commission is to indicate that the registrant is deaf or hard of hearing.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) projects that the bill will result in indeterminate initial development costs and ongoing administrative expenditures for the State.  The magnitude of any State cost increase will depend on implementation decisions made by the

New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, which the OLS is unable to anticipate.

      It is not known what type of changes will be made to registration information or the cost to make those changes; however, programming or design changes of this type can largely be completed with the assistance of the Office of Information Technology, and the change orders are expected to be comparable to other change orders that the commission has issued to its vendors in the past. The bill’s requirements are not expected to significantly alter the existing contract with document vendors.