Provides for increase and annual adjustment in allowance paid to veterans with certain wartime service-connected disabilities.

A1682

ASSEMBLY, No. 1682

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

�

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman VERLINA REYNOLDS-JACKSON

District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)

SYNOPSIS

���� Provides for increase and annual adjustment in
allowance paid to veterans with certain wartime service-connected disabilities.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

���� Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative
Counsel.

��

An Act

providing for an increase and annual adjustment to the allowance paid to
veterans with certain wartime service-connected disabilities, and amending
R.S.38:18-2, R.S.38:18-3, and P.L.1947, c.263.

����
Be It Enacted

by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� R.S.38:18-2 is amended
to read as follows:

���� 38:18-2.�
a.
� A
soldier, who has sustained a total loss of sight as a result of his service
during any of the wars mentioned in section 1 of this chapter, shall be paid
for the term of his life, and upon his death his surviving spouse shall be
paid, provided that the soldier or surviving spouse shall continue as a
resident of this State, the sum of
[
$750.00
]

$1,500
annually, in monthly payments.� Such
payments shall be due and payable from the date of discharge or release of the
soldier if application therefor shall be made within one year from the date of
such discharge or release.� If the application shall be made one year from the
date of discharge or release of the soldier such payments shall be due and
payable from the date of such application. Accrued payments to the date of
certification shall be paid in one lump sum.

����
b.��� The amount of the
annual payment provided for in subsection a. of this section shall be adjusted
annually by the State Treasurer in direct proportion to the percent change in
the Consumer Price Index over a 12-month period beginning November 1 and ending
October 31.� For the purpose of this subsection, "Consumer Price
Index" means the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, New
York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Area, All Items
(1982-84=100), as published by the� Bureau of Labor Statistics in the United
States Department of Labor.� The State Treasurer shall determine the amount of
the adjustment by December 1 of each year and the adjustment shall become
effective for payments to be made during the calendar year following the
determination, beginning with payments made on or after January 1 of each
calendar year.� An adjustment in the annual payment shall be made only if the
percent change in the Consumer Price Index for the period specified is greater
than zero. If the reference base of the index is changed, the index used to
determine the Consumer Price Index shall be the index converted to the new base
by standard statistical methods.� The first adjustment shall not be made sooner
than twelve full months following the effective date of
P.L. , c. (now pending
before the Legislature as this bill).

(cf: P.L.1985, c.116, s.1)

���� 2.��� R.S.38:18-3 is amended
to read as follows:

���� 38:18-3.� Evidence of the
service and disability mentioned in this chapter shall be furnished to the
Division
of Veterans Services in the
Department of
[
Economic
Development
]

Military and Veterans' Affairs
,
which shall examine the same and upon being satisfied that the service was
performed and the soldier has been rendered totally blind as a result thereof,
shall so certify to the
[
State Comptroller
]

Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting
in the Department of the Treasury
who shall, upon receipt thereof, draw
[
his
]

a
warrant
on the State Treasurer in favor of the applicant in a bulk sum for any accrued
payments and in the
annual
sum
[
of $750.00
annually
]

provided in R.S.38:18-2
, which
the State Treasurer shall pay out of the money appropriated therefor by the
Legislature.

(cf: P.L.1971, c.329, s.2)

���� 3.��� Section 2 of P.L.1947,
c.263 (C.38:18A-2) is amended to read as follows:

���� 2.�
a.
� A veteran who
served in the active military or naval forces of the United States and who has
paraplegia and permanent paralysis of both legs and lower parts of the body, or
who has osteochondritis and permanent loss of the use of both legs, or who has hemiplegia
and permanent paralysis of one leg and one arm or either side of the body,
resulting from injury to the spinal cord, skeletal structure, or brain, or who
has had both hands, both feet, or one hand and one foot amputated, or who has
lost the use of both feet or both legs, due to multiple sclerosis, sustained
through enemy action, or accident, or resulting from disease contracted while
in active military or naval service, shall be paid for the term of the
veteran's life, and upon the veteran's death the surviving spouse, domestic
partner, or partner in civil union shall be paid, the sum of
[
$750
]

$1,500

annually in monthly payments.� Such payments shall be due and payable from the
date of discharge or release of the veteran if application therefor shall be
made within one year from the date of such discharge or release.� If the
application shall be made after one year from the date of discharge or release
of the veteran, such payment shall be due and payable from the date of such
application.� Accrued payments to the date of certification shall be paid in
one lump sum.

����
b.��� The amount of the
annual payment provided for in� subsection a. of this section shall be adjusted
annually by the State Treasurer in direct proportion to the percent change in
the Consumer Price Index over a 12-month period beginning November 1 and ending
October 31.� For the purpose of this subsection, "Consumer Price
Index" means the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, New
York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Area, All Items
(1982-84=100), as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the United
States Department of Labor.� The State Treasurer shall determine the amount of
the adjustment by December 1 of each year and the adjustment shall become
effective for payments to be made during the calendar year following the
determination, beginning with payments made on or after� January 1 of each
calendar year.� An adjustment in the� annual payment shall be made only if the
percent change in the Consumer Price Index for the period specified is greater
than zero.� If the reference base of the index is changed, the index used to
determine the Consumer Price Index shall be the index converted to the new base
by standard statistical methods.� The first adjustment shall not be made sooner
than twelve full months following the effective date of
P.L. , c. (now pending
before the Legislature as this bill).

����
c.
� Nothing in
P.L.1947, c.263 (C.38:18A-1 et seq.) shall be intended to include paraplegia or
hemiplegia resulting from locomotor ataxia or other forms of syphilis of the
central nervous system or from chronic alcohol use disorder, or to include
other forms of disease resulting from the veteran's own misconduct which may
produce signs and symptoms similar to those resulting from paraplegia,
osteochondritis, hemiplegia, or multiple sclerosis.

(cf: P.L.2017, c.131, s.146)

���� 4.��� Section 3 of P.L.1947,
c.263 (C.38:18A-3) is amended to read as follows:

���� 3.��� Evidence of the service
and disability mentioned in this act shall be furnished to the Division of
[
Veterans'
]

Veterans

Services of the Department of
[
Human
Services
]

Military and Veterans'

Affairs
, which shall examine the same and
upon being satisfied that the service was performed and the veteran has been
rendered permanently paralyzed or has permanently lost the use of both legs, or
has suffered amputation, as defined in section 2 of this act, shall so certify
to the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting in the Department of
the Treasury, who shall, upon receipt thereof, draw
[
his
]

a
warrant on the State
Treasurer in favor of the� applicant in the
annual
sum
[
of $750.00
annually
]

provided in section 2 of P.L.1947, c.263 (C.38:18A-2)
, which the State
Treasurer shall pay out of the money appropriated therefor by the Legislature.

(cf: P.L.1981, c.424, s.3)

���� 5.��� This act shall take
effect immediately, and shall be applicable to payments payable on or after the
first day of the second month following enactment.

STATEMENT

���� The State pays an annual
allowance to soldiers and veterans with certain wartime service-connected
disabilities. Currently, a blind veteran receives $750 annually under the Blind
Veterans' Allowance Program; this amount has not been changed since 1971.� A
veteran with certain other described disabilities also receives $750 annually
under the Paraplegic and Hemiplegic Veterans' Allowance Program; this amount
has not been changed since 1981.� This bill increases these annual payments to
$1,500.

���� The bill also provides for an
annual adjustment in this allowance in direct proportion to the percent change
in the Consumer Price Index over each 12-month period beginning November 1 and
ending October 31.� The "Consumer Price Index" is defined as the
Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, New York-Northern New Jersey-Long
Island Metropolitan Area, All Items (1982-84=100), as published by the Bureau
of Labor Statistics in the United States Department of Labor.� The bill
requires an adjustment to be made only if the percent change in the Consumer
Price Index results in an increase in the allowance; the allowance will not be
reduced if the index experiences a decline.

���� The purpose of this adjustment
is to provide a mechanism for ensuring that, for the benefit of these disabled
soldiers and veterans, the amount of this allowance keeps pace with
cost-of-living increases.��