There's been a steady increase in callers to New Jersey's 988 suicide and crisis hotline over the years.

After being introduced nationwide in 2020 to offering free and confidential emotional support for people in mental distress, until now, the state's been using funding from the general budget and other sources to keep it operational.

But Governor Murphy is proposing a new dedicated tax to support the service.

One of many new taxes being pitched as part of his final spending plan in office.

Mental health writer Bobby Brier has the story.

As part of our new reporting project, Under the Dome, exploring the state government and its impact on New Jersey.

Bobby, good to talk to you.

A lot of talk about this hotline and how many people it's reached.

So what's being proposed here in the state to make sure that it sticks around?

Yeah.

Right now, Governor Murphy has proposed a $0.40 fee on all phone lines here in the state per line per month that would essentially allow for this hotline to be funded consistently.

Right now, that $0.40 fee is estimated to generate just over $61 million for the 98 hotline here in the state so that it can continue to get funding year over year.

This is something that mental health advocates have really said would support that not only the hotline, but people who are in need of the support the most.

And is that Bobby, for landlines and cell phones?

Because I would imagine there are a lot more cell lines these days and what's at risk otherwise.

That's right.

This would be for both landline and mobile phone lines, as well as some other forms of telephone lines like voice over Internet in certain cases.

The risk here is that if this is not funded year over year, consistently through some of the state funding, there's right now questions over whether federal funding would really be able to sustain the level of support that is needed to keep these hotlines and call centers open.

This really comes at a time when other states have also been adopting these fees.

We've seen states like Oregon and California, Colorado already pass this kind of legislation.

New Jersey would be taking a step in that direction.

And this really all comes after a federal mandate, after Congress passed a law in 2020 that would allow for states to collect these fees on phone lines.

What role is it playing, Bobby?

I mean, just this hotline in general, Is it seeing success just in terms of the amount of people who are calling in and the amount of people who are being helped?

It is, you know, year over year, we're seeing data from both New Jersey and across the country trickling up.

We're seeing calls coming in increasing significantly since it was first implemented in July of 2022.

There's been a number of calls routed just under 10 million calls, according to some of the latest data from SAMHSA to these national call centers and to some of these local call centers as well.

We're seeing a lot of this, what they call a continuum of care as well.

So it's not just helping people in the moment over the phone, but there's also many mobile crisis response teams that are in development here in the state that would really help people if they need that sort of extra level of support after a call, it takes place.

But is there an appetite?

I mean, clearly there's there's good work being done, but is there an appetite for attacks in order to have that dedicated source of funding?

The governor's proposing quite a few, at least in his spending plan.

But.

Right.

It's, you know, mental health advocates have certainly been in favor of it.

But to your exact point, it really comes at a time when there's all these other taxes that are being proposed by Governor Murphy.

You know, right now we're seeing the high cost of living and high taxes as already key issues.

This is something that has really received bipartisan support.

So many of the advocates and lawmakers that have spoken to about this have been in favor of it.

And as one of those taxes that they wouldn't mind having in light of all the other taxes that are currently on the table right now.

But would it need legislation to go with it in order to allocate that money?

It would.

And essentially, there is a bill pending that has not received a vote in either side of the the House right now that would allow for this to be codified into law.

An interesting part of that current legislation is that there is a trust fund, a 90 day trust fund, to ensure that this money would be collected and just spent for this specific purpose to keep these call centers running.

And some of those it's an administrative costs as well.

That piece of legislation we could see get some movement in the months to come.

But to your exact point, yes, this is something that would, of course, definitely need to be codified into law before that time.

It's almost as if they know that state taxes that have been raised in the past haven't been used for their intended purpose.

Bobby Brier you can read his full reporting on this and others with Under the Dome on our website.

NJSpotlightNews.org Bobby, thanks.

Thanks, Briana.

Under the dome is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.