Larry Newman, reunited adult adoptee and volunteer for NJ Care wrote to me privately clarifying the Courier Post’s December 7th article. With his permission I have reprinted his response for you here.

New Jersey's bill (S-1087/A-2557) was originally introduced with an appropriation of $90,000, not $1,000,000. Here is the history of the million dollar price tag.

In the last legislative session (2003-2005), the bill in the assembly was assigned to an "unfriendly" committee. This committee let the bill sit for nearly two years and decided to schedule the only public hearing in the last month of the session, December, 2005. A week or so before the hearing, the committee introduced amendments raising the appropriation to $300,000. On the morning, prior to the hearing, the committee met with groups opposed to the bill (unknown to the advocates of the bill at the time - including the legislative prime sponsor) and raised the appropriation to $1,000,000.

Of course, this was a poison pill killing the bill on the spot, while allowing the committee to release the bill from committee. It was DOA to the full Assembly.

Testimony provided by advocates of the bill provided factual evidence that national TV, radio and newspaper coverage (bilingual) could be purchased for approximately $40,000. And that the video tape media for the TV public service announcements would become the property of the state and therefore at the State's discretion for further public dissemination (e.g. public libraries, agencies, etc.) Her testimony was cut short by the chair woman of the committee.

Since then we have researched publicity further and found services that can distribute press releases, GLOBALLY, for under $400. This would enable weekly press releases for 18 months to be purchased for under one third of the appropriation.

We met with the Courier Post editorial board as a result of their article. They made clear to us that they support the bill as introduced.

I hope this helps your understanding of the issue.

Thanks for this opportunity.

Larry Newman, reunited adult adoptee
Volunteer for NJCARE