State lawmakers are pushing legislation to raise 61 million dollars in taxes for suicide prevention and mental health services. Two days after the death of former New Jersey Governor Dick Codey on January 11—a longtime mental-health advocate—lawmakers reintroduced a bill to enact a 40-cent-per-month tax on telephone lines to pay for remote counseling, emergency in-person response, and other help via the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Over 50 years in elective office, Codey exposed abuses at state-run psychiatric hospitals, pushed for addiction services at homeless shelters, and with his wife Mary Jo, spoke frankly about his family’s triumph over her postpartum depression. Lawmakers say the proposed legislation reflects what Codey would have wanted. Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), a primary sponsor of the bill, noted: “Part of what was important about the governor’s legacy was his continued advocacy for treatment and for access to treatment. And when either treatment doesn’t work or someone doesn’t seek treatment, but they seek help, the hotline is the place to go.”
Roughly 700 New Jerseyans take their lives each year, and suicide is the third leading cause of death among those ages 10-24. In New Jersey alone, hotline staffers in December 2025 answered 8,666 calls, texts, and chat requests, more than double those from the same period in 2022. Mental health emergencies are at crisis levels nationally, particularly among youth.
The crisis line in New Jersey is answered by counselors who in December spent an average 13.5 minutes with each caller. In emergencies, counselors can dispatch local in-person response teams. The tax would be added to monthly cellular bills and deposited to a state trust fund, paying for services including mobile crisis teams, treatment at stabilization centers as an alternative to hospital emergency rooms, and temporary housing. Phone fees support such services in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota, Vermont, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, and New Mexico.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.njspotlightnews.org/2026/01/tax-for-mental-health-crisis-hotline-revived-as-backers-cite-codey-legacy/