SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
SENATE, No. 3957
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: DECEMBER 16, 2024
The Senate Judiciary Committee reports favorably and with
committee amendments Senate Bill No. 3957.
As amended, this bill provides that a newspaper utilized, or
permitted to be utilized, by a person for the purpose of complying with
any legal requirement, or a public body, as defined in section 3 of the
“Senator Byron M. Baer Open Public Meetings Act,” P.L.1975, c.231
(C.10:4-8), from January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024 for the
purpose of complying with R.S.35:1-2.2 or any other requirements for
issuing or publishing a public notice or legal advertisement, including,
but not limited to, for providing adequate notice of a meeting, the
solicitation of bids, qualifications, or proposals, or the publication of
any ordinances, synopses, or summaries of official documents, would
be deemed eligible for the same purposes from January 1, 2025 to
March 1, 2025 if the newspaper’s publication is in print or electronic
format. Under the bill, a price paid for publication in print or
electronic format would be prohibited from exceeding an amount
specified in current law. See R.S.35:2-1. Additionally, a fee would
not be permitted to be charged, and registration would not be required,
for viewing public notices or legal advertisements published in an
electronic format.
The committee amendments to the bill:
- specify that an individual person, for the purpose of complying
with any legal requirement, may utilize a newspaper in calendar year
2025 as set forth in the bill based upon any newspaper utilized or
permitted to be utilized by the person during calendar year 2024;
- specify that newspapers that are permitted to be utilized by public
bodies during calendar year 2024 for complying with requirements for
issuing or publishing public notices or legal advertisements would be
deemed eligible to be used in calendar year 2025 as set forth in the bill
along with any newspaper utilized by such public bodies in calendar
year 2024;
- provide that the issuance or publication of public notices or legal
advertisements also includes the solicitation of bids, qualifications, or
proposals, or the publication of any ordinances, synopses, or
summaries of official documents; as originally introduced, the bill only 2
expressly indicated adequate notice of a meeting as an example of an
issuance or publication;
- provide that a price paid for newspaper publication in print or
electronic format would be prohibited from exceeding an amount
specified in current law as set forth in R.S.35:2-1;
- prohibit the charging of a fee or requiring registration in order to
view public notices or legal advertisements published in an electronic
format; and
- add a definition of “electronic format” to mean “an Internet
website and other technology having electrical, digital, magnetic,
wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities that is
operated by or for a newspaper for publication,” and use that term to
describe a newspaper’s publication in such format.