SENATE ECONOMIC GROWTH COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 3152

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  MAY 16, 2024

      The Senate Economic Growth Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 3152.

      As amended and reported, this bill amends existing notification requirements for certain utility assistance programs.  Under current law, the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), the Department of Human Services (DHS), the Board of Public Utilities (BPU), and any other State agency that administers a utility assistance program is required to update all public information, including written materials, advertisements, and websites, regarding the availability of any utility assistance programs administered by the State.  The public information is to prominently include a statement of the consumer protections residential customers are required to receive if the customer has submitted an application for a utility assistance program or completed an application for a utility assistance program.  Each local authority, municipal utility, public utility, or rural electric cooperative is required under current law to provide the same public information in any communication to a residential customer in connection with an overdue utility bill.

      Under the bill, definitions are included for the terms “local authority,” municipal utility,” and “public utility.”  The bill adds a requirement that the DCA, the DHS, the BPU, and any other State agency that administers a utility assistance program maintain current the required public information and that they provide a phone number for customers to call for more information.  The required public information is to prominently include, for as long as a utility assistance program is accepting applications and has available funding, a statement of the consumer protections a residential customer is entitled to receive if the customer has submitted an application for a utility assistance program or completed an application for a utility assistance program.

      The bill requires that each local authority, municipal utility, public utility, or rural electric cooperative prominently provide the public information required by the bill: (1) on or with each bill sent to a residential customer if one or more utility assistance programs relevant to the service being billed are available to residential customers; (2) in any written or non-written communication to a residential customer in connection with an overdue utility bill if one or more utility assistance programs relevant to the service being billed are available to residential customers; and (3) on its Internet website, in a location most likely to be seen by residential customers seeking information about paying their bills.  Additionally, a local authority, municipal utility, public utility, or rural electric cooperative is required to include, in the public information, information on any other State or federal utility assistance program that it knows is available to its customers and any other utility assistance program funded or administered by the local authority, municipal utility, public utility, or rural electric cooperative. 

      The bill provides that a utility bill or written communication in connection with an overdue utility bill may comply with this public information requirement if it prominently includes, in English and the most common language spoken, apart from English, in the county where the residential customer resides: (1) a statement that utility assistance programs may be available to residential customers; (2) an Internet website and a phone number residential customers can use to get more information on each relevant program; and (3) the website of the local authority, municipal utility, public utility, or rural electric cooperative as applicable. This bill also provides that a residential customer bill or written communication in connection with an overdue utility bill may include the information either on the bill or written communication itself or as a separate document provided to the residential customer at the same time the bill or written communication is provided to the residential customer.

      The bill requires each local authority, municipal utility, public utility, or rural electric cooperative to include in each notice of discontinuance during the months in which the “Winter Termination Program” is active, a notice of residential customer rights under the program.  Certain exceptions are provided for notice of customer rights under the program for local authority, municipal utility, public utility, or rural electric cooperative as provided in the bill.

      The bill also repeals P.L.2021, c.97, a law requiring public utilities and local utilities to provide certain notifications to residential customers of information and resources available to residential customers concerning public utility and local utility service and bill payment assistance during the coronavirus 2019 pandemic.

      Under P.L.2021, c.97, the notification is required to be provided monthly, in a form and manner determined by the Board of Public Utilities or Department of Community Affairs until 18 months after the date of the termination of Executive Order No. 103 of 2020, which authorized the State of Emergency in response to the coronavirus 2019 pandemic.  P.L.2021, c.97 also requires the information to be published on public utilities’ and local utilities’ Internet websites.  Under this bill, the notification requirements of P.L.2021, c.97 are repealed.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to:

      (1) expand the definition of “municipal utility”;

      (2) remove a requirement that entities provide public information regarding the availability of the “Low Income Household Water Assistance Program”;

      (3) include that the information provided by each local authority, municipal utility, public utility, or rural electric cooperative may be provided either on the bill itself or included as a separate document with a bill or communication in reference to an overdue bill;

      (4) limit the utility assistance programs that each local authority, municipal utility, public utility, or rural electric cooperative is required to provide information about to only those run specified in the bill and those by State or federal entities or the entity itself; and

      (5) provide that information required to be provided concerning rights under the “Winter Termination Program,” are to be provided in each notice of discontinuance rather than a bill or written communication or in connection with an overdue utility bill and provide an exception to this requirement for certain local authority, municipal utility, public utility, or rural electric cooperative.