An act relating to helping to reduce the use of fossil fuel energy in town buildings and to support our state's students in higher learning.
Be it enacted by the Youth Model Legislature of the State of New Jersey that each calendar year, each municipality in the state of New Jersey will accept
applications from students detailing plans for installations or changes in town-owned buildings to save energy and/or eliminate the town's use of fossil fuels.
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Section I:
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The student whose plan is identified as being the most beneficial will be given a maximum $500 of state money to execute his or her plan, provided that its execution will save the town enough money within the first year to pay the state back in full. The student is responsible for organizing and executing his or her plan independently of the town or state, unless a member of the town government wishes to assist in or oversee its execution.
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Section II:
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After the initial $500 is returned to the state, the student will receive 75% of the money the town saves as a result of their project in the form of a scholarship to be used a college or university of the student's choosing. The student will continue to receive this yearly scholarship as long as he or she is enrolled in college, graduate, or post-graduate school, and as long as the project continues to benefit the town. If an installation breaks or stops working of natural causes, the student may decide to fix it him or herself, or leave it broken and lose any future scholarship money.
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Section III:
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Of the remaining 25% of money saved, 5% will be added to the budget of the school system from which the student received his or her high school diploma, 10% will be kept by the town, and 10% will be added to the state's funds to offset any unforeseen losses caused by the program. Private schools may still receive their 5%, but if a student is home schooled,the 5% earmarked for a school budget will be added to the 10% kept by the town.
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Section IV:
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A year's savings will be calculated by identifying the energy bill to be affected by the student's project and subtracting that year's bill total from the total from the year before the student's plan was implemented. Weather or other conditions that may have also altered the bill over the year will be assumed to cancel each other out over time, and be ignored.
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Section V:
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Applications may be standardized or informal, but must include description of the time expected to complete the project, its financial costs, the materials needed, how the change or installation will affect the town and building, and how much the town can expect to save yearly through the plan's implementation. Any plans not deemed detailed enough by whoever reviews them will be given two weeks for resubmission, then not offered any further opportunities for editing.
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Section VI:
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Plan applications will be accepted until March 1. Towns must pick the best plan and inform the state of its choice by March 31. Any plans received after March 1 will not be considered until the following year. A town may also choose to accept no plans if it wishes not to participate in the program. Projects must be finished by the following October, unless otherwise negotiated. To avoid projects that are begun on state dollars and never completed, the town will use the $500 to reimburse the student for what has been finished. Students may choose to execute their plans in self-contained stages, with reimbursement after every stage, or all at once, receiving reimbursement only after the final project is completed. Stages must be planned along a timeline, and stages that are not completed on time will not be reimbursed until the next stage is completed.
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Section VII:
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If a student receiving scholarship money decides to take a year off from higher learning, he or she must detail his or her intentions to return to schooling the following year if he or she wishes to retain the scholarship. If intentions are not fulfilled, except for in an extenuating circumstance whose validity is to be determined by the town figure responsible for overseeing the
program, all unused money is returned to the state.
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Section VIII:
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The mayor may decide to evaluate the proposed plans, pick one,and oversee the project and the use of the state's $500 himself,or delegate the responsibility to a councilman, committee, or other qualified assistant or assistants.
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Section IX:
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Plans must be projected to save at least enough money to repay the State’s $500 within the first year after the project is completed. If a town accepts a plan that cannot realistically achieve this, the town will be responsible for devising another way to return to the state its $500. Installations may include but are not limited to solar panels, wind turbines, or green roofs. Applicants must live within the town's boundaries and cannot already have received a high school diploma.
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Section X:
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The plan will run for a pilot year, with $500 given to one town per county, whichever town submits its plan first.
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| Statement of Intent: The purpose of this Bill is help reduce the energy used by our towns’buildings, while simultaneously helping students who take initiative to pay for their college educations and returning money spent on energy to town, school, and state budgets.
Effective Date: This Bill shall take effect as soon as it is passed, with the first applications accepted until March 1, 2011.
Financial Statement: The State will be responsible for granting $500 to each town that identifies a realistic plan. Each plan that receives $500 from the state must include plans to return to the state its $500, and plans that fall short of this sum due to unforeseen complications will be offset by the yearly 10% of savings from each plan that does succeed. If every municipality in the State of New Jersey submits a plan, the State will grant a maximum of $283,000, but since it is not mandatory that a town submit a plan, it is unlikely that this will occur. Therefore, the State will have no net loss of money, and may even gain revenue.
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* Primary Sponsor |
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