A bill to prohibit the sale of flavored cigarettes in New Jersey was approved 8-1 yesterday by the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee.

The bill (S613), sponsored by Sens. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex) and Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex), would prohibit the sale or distribution of cigarettes with a flavor that is attractive to young people. The bill prohibits any cigarettes flavored to produce distinctive fruit, chocolate, vanilla, honey, alcoholic beverage, herb or spice flavors, among others. The bill exempts menthol or clove cigarettes from the prohibition, and does not apply to cigars, cigarillos, pipe tobacco or smokeless tobacco.

“Smoking is a life-threatening habit, and anything we can do to discourage kids from picking up the habit is a step in the right direction,” Vitale said. “The problem is that the entire time we’re discouraging young people from smoking, tobacco companies are coming up with new and inventive ways to draw in new customers.”

The bill now heads to the full Senate. Teaching youngsters

their financial ABCs A pilot program to provide a course in financial literacy to elementary school students was unanimously approved yesterday by the Senate Education Committee.

Sponsored by Sens. John Gir genti (D-Passaic) and Shirley Turner (D-Mercer), the bill (S541) would have the Department of Education establish a three-year Youth Investment Club pilot program to provide elementary school students with financial literacy education. The program would have to give students an introduction to basic financial concepts, while assisting them in opening a savings account.

“It’s a pretty well-known fact that many credit card companies target young students with an influx of credit card applications as soon as they turn 18,” Girgenti said. “This legislation would help teach students from an early age the importance of saving and managing their money, while showing them the benefits of developing long-term savings goals.”

The measure now heads to the full Senate for approval. Towns that share court

could have own judges The Senate Judiciary Commit tee approved a bill yesterday to allow municipalities that share courtroom facilities and support staff to maintain separate judges.

Sponsored by Sen. John Adler (D-Camden), the bill would amend the current law, which says that if municipalities enter into an agreement to share municipal court services, they are bound by the law to also share the judge.

Adler’s bill would allow towns to set up their shared services agreements to allow courtroom administration and facilities to be shared, but each individual municipality would still have the authority to maintain its own judge.

“Service-sharing should be encouraged at every level of government in New Jersey to help control soaring costs and protect burdened property taxpayers,” said Adler (D-Camden). “However, thanks to a quirk in the current setup, municipalities have been hesitant to share court services, be cause it would mean giving up local control of municipal judges. Under this measure, we’re paving the way for shared services for towns which might be leery about giving up their local judges.”

The bill (S335) now heads to the full Senate for consideration.