Summary — A-3765 (1R, as amended)
Status: Passed Assembly (6/28/2024); received in Senate (9/19/2024); reported out of Senate Community & Urban Affairs Committee with amendments, 2nd Reading (6/5/2025). As amended, identical to S-3053.
Sponsor: Assemblyman Clinton Calabrese (D-36). Co-sponsors: As listed in committee reports.
Purpose
- To prevent online parking-payment vendors from charging motorists for times when municipal or authority-managed parking is either prohibited or free by requiring that contracts between those public entities and such vendors contain a non-charging stipulation.
Key provisions
- Contract requirement: Any contract between a municipality or a parking authority and an online parking payment service provider must stipulate that the provider shall not charge a parking fee to a user during any time period when parking at the applicable parking project is prohibited or is designated as free.
- Scope of application: As amended in committee, the bill’s requirements are applied through the Local Public Contracts Law (i.e., to contracts governed by that statute). Earlier committee amendments also specified that the rule applies to contracts entered into, renewed, modified, or amended on or after the bill’s effective date.
- Definition: “Online parking payment service” is defined as a public-facing Internet website, Internet web application, or computer/mobile application that allows a user to submit payment for parking a motor vehicle at a publicly available parking project.
- Conforming/technical edits: Committee amendments updated statutory references (including replacing obsolete “board of chosen freeholders” language) and made technical corrections.
Who is affected
- Municipalities and parking authorities that use online payment vendors for public parking.
- Online parking payment service providers contracting with those public entities.
- Motorists and other users of publicly available parking projects, who would be protected from being charged when parking is prohibited or free.
Procedural/timeline notes
- Assembly: Introduced and considered in 2024; passed the Assembly 75-1-1 on June 28, 2024.
- Senate: Received (9/19/2024) and reported with committee amendments by the Senate Community & Urban Affairs Committee (6/5/2025). As amended in the Senate, the bill applies its provisions via the Local Public Contracts Law.
- Identical companion: S-3053 (as amended).
Potential impacts and considerations
- Consumer protection: Reduces instances where drivers are erroneously charged during free or prohibited periods.
- Contractual/administrative effect: Requires municipalities/authorities to include specific contractual language and likely to require operational coordination (e.g., data sharing, timing rules) between public entities and vendors to avoid prohibited-time charges.
- Enforcement: The bill mandates contract terms but does not, in the reported text, create a new statutory penalty or private cause of action; enforcement would primarily be through contract compliance and any remedies available under local contracting law or the contract itself.
