LEGISLATIVE FISCAL ESTIMATE

SENATE, No. 3494

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

221st LEGISLATURE

 

DATED: DECEMBER 5, 2024

 

 

SUMMARY

 

Synopsis:

Requires four-year public institution of higher education to develop and implement reproductive health services plan; requires county college to develop referral network for reproductive health care services.

Type of Impact:

Annual expenditure increase to four-year public institutions of higher education and county colleges; one-time State expenditure increase.

Agencies Affected:

Four-Year Public Institutions of Higher Education; County Colleges; Office of the Secretary of Higher Education; Department of Health; Department of Human Services.

 

 

Office of Legislative Services Estimate

Fiscal Impact

 

 

One-Time State Expenditure Increase

Indeterminate

 

Annual Expenditure Increase - Four-Year Public Institutions of Higher Education

Indeterminate

 

Annual Expenditure Increase - County Colleges

Indeterminate

 

 

 

 

·         The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) finds that this bill will lead to an increase in annual expenditures to four-year public institutions of higher education, to the extent that the institutions do not already provide the various services that are required to be included in the reproductive health services plan.  Costs may vary by institution depending on the ways in which the institution implements its reproductive health services plan and the additional equipment, facilities, personnel, and other costs associated with the plan.

 

·         The OLS also notes that the bill’s requirement on county colleges to develop a referral network for the provision of reproductive health care services will result in annual increased administrative costs to the colleges. 

 

·         Finally, the bill will result in one-time increased costs to the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education, as well as the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services, to develop guidelines for four-year public institutions of higher education and county colleges to use in implementing the requirements of the bill. 

BILL DESCRIPTION

 

      This bill requires four-year public institutions of higher education to develop and implement a reproductive health services plan.

      The plan is required to make available on-campus various reproductive health services provided by health care professionals, or referrals to off-campus services provided by health care professionals or health care facilities.  The services include: obtaining contraception, including non-prescription and prescription emergency contraception and pharmacist authorized, self-administered hormonal contraceptives; services for preventing, testing for, and treating sexually transmitted infections, including HIV; prenatal care; and abortion.  The plan is also required to include: methods to provide students with 24-hour access to over-the-counter contraception through the student health center, on-campus retail establishments, or vending machines; the provision of evidence-based reproductive health education services; and the development of a referral network of verified health care professionals, health care facilities, and pharmacies that provide off-campus health care services located within the county that the four-year institution of higher education is located.

      The bill also requires county colleges to develop a referral network of verified health care professionals, health care facilities, and pharmacies that provide off-campus reproductive health care services in the county in which the county college is located in.

      The bill requires the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education, in consultation with the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services, to develop guidelines to assist public institutions of higher education in developing and implementing a reproductive health services plan and county colleges in developing the referral network.

 

 

FISCAL ANALYSIS

 

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

 

      None received.

 

OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE SERVICES

 

      The OLS finds that this bill will lead to an increase in annual expenditures to four-year public institutions of higher education, to the extent that the institutions do not already provide the various services that are required to be included in the reproductive health services plan.  Costs may vary by institution depending on the ways in which each institution decides to implement its reproductive health services plan and the additional equipment, facilities, personnel, and other costs associated with the plan.  These institutions may increase student health fees or other charges for the newly required services, which would increase revenues for these institutions.

      While it cannot definitively project the magnitude of costs associated with the bill, the OLS reviewed public information related to other states that have implemented substantially similar legislation.  In particular, Maryland recently enacted a law that, similar to this bill, requires four-year public institutions of higher education to develop and implement a reproductive health services plan.  Pursuant to the law, an institution is required to provide at the institution a comprehensive range of reproductive health services or refer students to the services.  A fiscal note for the law indicated that many of the institutions to which the law applies were already able to develop and, for the most part, implement the required reproductive health services plans using existing budgeted resources.  The fiscal note stated that the law was also largely codifying already-available services.  The OLS shares a summary of Maryland’s fiscal analysis for the purposes of illustration only and to note that it may also be the case that there are four-year public institutions of higher education in the State that already provide the services described in this bill.

      The OLS notes that other states have codified certain components of the reproductive health services plan required by the bill.  For example, the bill requires that four-year public institutions of higher education, through their reproductive health services plans, make available services for abortion, including medication abortion.  In 2019, California enacted the College Student Right to Access Act which, in part, requires student health centers located on a campus within the University of California and California State University systems to, after January 1, 2023, offer abortion by medication techniques onsite.  In a 2023 annual report regarding the implementation of the law, the University of California Office of the President indicated that, from FY 2020-2021 to FY 2022-2023, the system’s campuses spent a total of $1.7 million to implement the act.  The average spending per campus was nearly $171,500.  The California State University Office of the Chancellor, meanwhile, articulated that its campuses spent a total of $1.6 million to implement the law, with average spending per campus being approximately $71,000.  Both systems reported that expenditures included items such as facility upgrades, training, staff salaries, medical equipment, and one-time costs.  The OLS provides these figures to illustrate the potential magnitude of costs to institutions in New Jersey to provide medication abortion but notes that, unlike California, the bill does not require four-year public institutions of higher education to directly provide abortions onsite.

      The bill also requires reproductive health services plans to include methods to provide students with 24-hour access to purchase over-the-counter contraception through the student health center, as applicable, on-campus retail establishments, or vending machines.  A growing method by which colleges across the country dispense over-the-counter contraception is through vending machines.  Illinois, for example, enacted a law requiring public institutions of higher education, except community colleges, to make emergency contraception available for purchase through at least one vending machine located on each campus.  A fiscal note from the Illinois Board of Higher Education estimated first-year costs to public institutions of higher education to be $135,000.  Estimated out-year costs totaled $20,000 annually. 

      The OLS also notes that the bill’s requirement on county colleges to develop a referral network for the provision of reproductive health care services will result in increased administrative costs to the colleges.  Any costs could be marginal and can possibly be subsumed within existing resources. 

      Finally, the bill may result in increased one-time costs to the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education, as well as the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services, to develop guidelines for four-year public institutions of higher education and county colleges to use in implementing the requirements of the bill.  If it is assumed that the additional work that may be associated with this requirement is equivalent to one-full time employee receiving the median State government employee salary, then costs would be around $131,000 when considering salary and fringe benefit costs.

 

 

Section:

Education

Analyst:

Christopher Myles

Senior 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.).