Bill Text: NJ S3124 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Establishes "Mass Violence Care Fund"; appropriates $10 million.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-1)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-04-15 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Law and Public Safety Committee [S3124 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-S3124-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator JON M. BRAMNICK
District 21 (Middlesex, Morris, Somerset and Union)
SYNOPSIS
Establishes "Mass Violence Care Fund"; appropriates $10 million.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act establishing a "Mass Violence Care Fund," supplementing Title 52 of the Revised Statutes, and making an appropriation.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. As used in P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill):
"Eligible expenses" means expenses and losses actually and reasonably incurred resulting from a personal injury sustained by a victim as a direct result of a mass violence event, including but not limited to medical and medically related expenses; psychological or mental health counseling expenses; lost wages, funeral, burial, and other homicide-related expenses and travel expenses; and loss of income of an individual who is killed in a mass violence event or a victim for providing or obtaining care for the personal injury of a minor or incapacitated victim. "Eligible expenses and losses" may include costs of eyeglasses, hearing aids, dentures, or other prosthetic devices taken, lost, destroyed, or damaged as a result of the mass violence event.
"Family or household member" means:
(1) the parent, guardian, stepparent, sibling, grandparent, spouse, child or stepchild of a victim or a person who bears an equally significant relationship to the victim; or
(2) a person who at the time or discovery of the mass violence event was living in the household of the victim or who previously had lived in the household of the victim for a period of not less than two years.
"Fund" means the Mass Violence Care Fund established pursuant to section 2 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill).
"Mass violence event" means an intentional violent crime that results in physical, emotional, or psychological injury to a large number of individuals and that significantly increases the burdens on victim support and compensation systems in the jurisdiction in which the violent crime occurred.
"Victim" means:
(1) a family or household member of an individual who is killed in a mass violence event;
(2) an individual who is physically injured in a mass violence event; and
(3) an individual who is physically present at a mass violence event and who witnesses that mass violence event.
"Victim" shall not include an individual who
was engaged in criminal activity at the time of the mass violence event or a
family or household member of that individual.
2. a. There is established in the Department of Law and Public Safety a separate, nonlapsing fund to be known as the "Mass Violence Care Fund." The fund shall be administered by the Victims of Crime Compensation Office established pursuant to section 2 of P.L.2007, c.95 (C.52:4B-3.2) and shall be used solely to provide a sustainable source of funds to provide coverage for physical and behavioral health care expenses related to a mass violence event that are not paid for by insurance or any other source.
b. The fund shall consist of moneys appropriated by the Legislature for the purposes of the fund, investment earnings of the fund, moneys contributed to the fund by private sources, and any other moneys that may become available for its purpose. The moneys in the fund shall be invested and reinvested by the Director of the Division of Investment in the Department of the Treasury. All costs of administering the fund, including the necessary and proper expenses incurred by the Victims of Crime Compensation Office in administering the fund, shall be paid from the fund. The State Treasurer, the Attorney General, or the Victims of Crime Compensation Office shall not encumber, invest, divest, or disburse funds for any purpose not specifically included in this section.
c. The Victims of Crime Compensation Office shall make distributions from the fund in accordance with the following criteria and any rules or regulations adopted by the Victims of Crime Compensation Office establishing eligibility criteria:
(1) Only gains, interest, dividends, and other revenue earned on the moneys in the fund and any amounts gifted to the fund may be expended;
(2) Payments from the fund may be made only for an eligible victim's eligible expenses;
(3) Payments from the fund to a victim for eligible expenses may not be made sooner than three years after the applicable mass violence event; and
(4) Payments may not be made to satisfy a financial commitment for services or expenses that would otherwise have been paid from another public or private source, including, but not limited to, Medicaid or private insurance.
d. The Victims of Crime Compensation Office shall adopt, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), rules and regulations establishing eligibility criteria for victims, mass violence events, and healthcare and other expenses pursuant to the provisions of this act. The Victims of Crime Compensation Office shall not make any distributions from the fund prior to the adoption of the rules and regulations.
3. a. The Attorney General shall establish a Mass Violence Care Fund Working Group. The purpose of the working group shall be to identify specific options and eligibility criteria to help ensure that individuals adversely affected by a mass violence event are provided some financial relief from physical and behavioral health care costs not paid for by insurance or some other source. The working group shall consider and determine:
(1) gaps in payments for physical and behavioral health care services for victims of mass violence events;
(2) methods of investing the moneys in the Mass Violence Care Fund established pursuant to section 2 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) to ensure sustainable annual financial returns;
(3) options for determining eligibility for distribution from the fund, including parameters for:
(a) who is considered a victim of a mass violence event;
(b) which healthcare costs are considered eligible expenses; and
(c) what constitutes a mass violence event; and
(4) any other items the working group determines are necessary to carry out the purposes of the fund.
b. The working group shall consist of the following members:
(1) a member of the Senate, appointed by the President of the Senate;
(2) a member of the General Assembly, appointed by the Speaker of the General Assembly;
(3) the Attorney General or a designee;
(4) the Commissioner of Health or a designee;
(5) the State Treasurer or a designee;
(6) the Director of the Victims of Crime Compensation Office or a designee; and
(7) a representative of the VTV Family Outreach Foundation.
c. All appointments to the working group shall be made within 30 days of the effective date of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill). The member of the Senate and the member of the General Assembly shall serve as co-chairs.
d. The working group shall issue a report containing its recommendations for eligibility requirements and rules and any recommendations for legislation to the Victims of Crime Compensation Office no later than nine months after the effective date of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill).
4. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Law and Public Safety $10,000,000 for the provision of that amount to the "Mass Violence Care Fund" to be used for the purposes set forth in P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill).
5. This act shall take
effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill establishes the "Mass Violence Care Fund" and appropriates $10 million.
Under the provisions of this bill, a Mass Violence Care Fund is established in the Department of Law and Public Safety. The fund is to be administered by the Victims of Crime Compensation Office (VCCO) and be used solely to provide a sustainable source of funds to provide coverage for physical and behavioral health care expenses related to a mass violence event that are not paid for by insurance or any other source.
The moneys in the fund are to be invested and reinvested by the Director of the Division of Investment in the Department of the Treasury. All costs of administering the fund, including the necessary and proper expenses incurred by the VCCO in administering the fund, are to be paid from the fund.
Under the bill, the VCCO is to make distributions from the fund in accordance with the following criteria and any rules or regulations adopted by the VCCO establishing eligibility criteria: 1) only gains, interest, dividends, and other revenue earned on the moneys in the fund and any amounts gifted to the fund may be expended; 2) payments from the fund may be made only for an eligible victim's eligible expense; 3) payments from the fund to a victim for an eligible expense may not be made sooner than three years after the applicable mass violence event; and 4) payments may not be made to satisfy a financial commitment for services or expenses that would otherwise have been paid from another public or private source, including but not limited to Medicaid or private insurance.
Under the bill, the VCCO is to adopt rules and regulations establishing eligibility criteria for victims, mass violence events, and healthcare and other expenses and the VCCO is not to make any distributions from the fund prior to the adoption of the rules and regulations.
Further, the bill requires the Attorney General to establish a Mass Violence Care Fund Working Group. The purpose of the working group is to identify specific options and eligibility criteria to help ensure that individuals adversely affected by a mass violence event are provided some financial relief from physical and behavioral health care costs not paid for by insurance or some other source.
The bill requires the working group to consider and determine: 1) gaps in payments for physical and behavioral health care services for victims of mass violence events; 2) methods of investing the moneys in the Mass Violence Care Fund by the bill to ensure sustainable annual financial returns; 3) options for determining eligibility for distribution from the fund, including parameters for: a) who is considered a victim of a mass violence event; b) which healthcare costs are considered eligible expenses; and c) what constitutes a mass violence event; and 4) any other items the working group determines are necessary to carry out the purposes of the fund.
The working group is to consist of the following members: 1) a member of the Senate, appointed by the President of the Senate; 2) a member of the General Assembly, appointed by the Speaker of the General Assembly; 3) the Attorney General or a designee; 4) the Commissioner of Health or a designee; 5) the State Treasurer or a designee; 6) the Director of the Victims of Crime Compensation Office or a designee; and 7) a representative of the VTV Family Outreach Foundation.
Under the bill, the working group is to issue a report containing its recommendations for eligibility requirements and rules and any recommendations for legislation to the VCCO no later than nine months after the bill's effective date.
Finally, the bill appropriates from the General Fund to the Department of Law and Public Safety $10 million for the provision of that amount to the "Mass Violence Care Fund" to be used for the purposes set forth in the bill.
