Corzine Signs Nearly Two Dozen Bills Into Law
Gov. Jon Corzine signed nearly two dozen bills into law Friday, including measures that restrict the marketing of credit cards at colleges, allow the state to invest cash and pension funds with New Jersey banks, and create personal finance courses for high school students. It’s now illegal to sell and distribute novelty lighters in New Jersey, doctors can write several prescriptions at once for certain drugs, and police must now tell school principals when students commit certain crimes. The bills have all been awaiting signature for months while they were in review by the governor’s office.
One law, written after a series of violent incidents at the Ancora Psychiatric Hospital in Camden County, requires the Department of Human Services to report physical assaults and deaths at state-run psychiatric hospitals online and to the Public Advocate. Another health bill, inspired by the death of a developmentally disabled woman who lived at a group home in Edison, requires facilities to give the medical examiner contact information for the deceased’s relatives.
College students should no longer expect to get free towels, T-shirts or other goodies in return for applying for a credit card. Those types of freebies were banned in one new bill which also placed other restrictions on companies.
In order to sign students up for credit cards on campus, companies now must register with colleges and certify that students have competed credit education courses that explain how interest is calculated. The course must explain how debt can grow over time if students only pay the minimum and that low initial, or teaser, rates will not stay that low forever. Companies are also forbidden from buying lists of students’ names and addresses from colleges.
Another bill will reduce the amount of unemployment tax employers need to pay when the state’s benefits fund gets back up above a certain level. This year, the state has had to increase the tax on employers because the fund has run out of money.
Proving there might truly be something for everybody in this spate of lawmaking, May 24 is now Aviation Maintenance Technician Day. Star Ledger.
