Police Training Surcharge

SECTION 4.   Chapter 6 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 116 the following section:-

Section 116 1/2. (a) Sums for the estimated expenses of providing annual in-service specialized and statutorily-mandated training programs conducted by the municipal police training committee for veteran and reserve municipal police officers and for those officers employed by agencies of the commonwealth who exercise police powers and receive this training from the municipal police training committee, including but not limited to environmental police officers and campus police officers of the University of Massachusetts and state colleges who exercise police powers, shall be paid to the commissioner of insurance by property and casualty insurance companies writing motor vehicle insurance policies in the commonwealth by means of a policy surcharge imposed upon the policyholder of any private passenger automobile policy issued by any property and casualty insurance company writing motor vehicle insurance policies in the commonwealth. These programs shall include new recruit training provided by the municipal police training committee; development and delivery of distance learning programs by the municipal police training committee; a standards and evaluations program for training courses and instructors of or certified by the municipal police training committee; the development and updating of training programs including curricula by the municipal police training committee, hiring, equipping, and training new state police recruits; and the development and operation of a state police cadet program including the hiring, equipping, and training of state police cadets, subject to appropriation, and the estimated cost of fringe benefits associated with this training hiring and employment. The amount of any surcharge shall be separately stated on either a billing or policy declaration sent to an insured. The rate of the policy surcharge shall be determined and adjusted annually by the commissioner of insurance to a rate sufficient to generate a surcharge to fund the expenses estimated by the secretary of public safety and security for the purposes described above.

(b) The policy surcharge shall be collected and remitted to the commissioner of insurance by the property and casualty insurance companies writing motor vehicle insurance policies in the commonwealth on a quarterly basis on or before the twenty-fifth day of the month succeeding the end of the quarter in which it is collected. Any company failing or refusing to collect and remit to the commissioner of insurance any policy surcharge or whose surcharge payments are not postmarked by the due dates for quarterly filing shall be liable for a penalty of up to $100 for each day of delinquency, to be assessed by the commissioner of insurance. The estimated costs shall include an amount equal to the cost of fringe benefits as established by the secretary of administration and finance under section 5D of chapter 29. Any surcharge collected in a fiscal year but not expended by the municipal police training committee or department of state police for the purposes set forth in this section shall be retained by the commonwealth for use by the municipal police training committee or department of state police. The retained surcharge shall be credited against the amounts required to be collected under this section in the following year, and those required payments shall be reduced by the amount of this credit.
 
 

Summary:
This section provides a surcharge on motor vehicle insurance policies to support training of municipal police officers by the Municipal Police Training Committee and an annual state police class.