Bill Text: NJ A1267 | 2012-2013 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Authorizes proportional property tax exemption for honorably discharged veterans having a service-connected permanent disability.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-01-10 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Housing and Local Government Committee [A1267 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2012-A1267-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
215th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2012 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman CRAIG J. COUGHLIN
District 19 (Middlesex)
Assemblyman JOHN S. WISNIEWSKI
District 19 (Middlesex)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblyman DeAngelo
SYNOPSIS
Authorizes proportional property tax exemption for honorably discharged veterans having a service-connected permanent disability.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act providing a proportional property tax exemption to certain disabled veterans and amending P.L.1948, c.259.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 1 of P.L.1948, c.259, (C.54:4-3.30) is amended to read as follows:
1. a. The dwelling house and the lot or curtilage whereon the same is erected, of any citizen and resident of this State, now or hereafter honorably discharged or released under honorable circumstances, from active service, in time of war, in any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States, who has been or shall be declared by the United States [Veterans Administration] Department of Veterans Affairs, its predecessor or its successor to have a service-connected permanent disability from paraplegia, sarcoidosis, hemiplegia, or osteochondritis [resulting in permanent loss of the use of both legs, or permanent paralysis of both legs and lower parts of the body, or from hemiplegia and has permanent paralysis of one leg and one arm or either side of the body], or resulting from injury to the spinal cord, skeletal structure, or brain or from disease of the spinal cord not resulting from any form of syphilis; or from [total] blindness; or from amputation [of both arms or both legs, or both hands or both feet, or the combination of a hand and a foot] affecting one or more extremities; or from other service-connected permanent disability [declared by the United States Veterans Administration or its successor to be a total or 100% permanent disability], [and] not so evaluated solely because of hospitalization or surgery and recuperation, sustained through enemy action, or accident, or resulting from disease contracted while in such active service, shall be exempt from taxation, on proper claim made therefor, in proportion to their percentage of service-connected permanent disability, up to and including a total or 100% permanent disability, as determined and declared by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, or its predecessor or successor, and such exemption shall be in addition to any other exemption of such person's real and personal property which now is or hereafter shall be prescribed or allowed by the Constitution or by law but no taxpayer shall be allowed more than one exemption under this act.
b. (1) The surviving spouse of any such citizen and resident of this State, who at the time of death was entitled to the exemption provided under this act, shall be entitled, on proper claim made therefor, to the same exemption as the deceased had, during the surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while a resident of this State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the legal owner thereof and actually occupies the said dwelling house or any other dwelling house thereafter acquired.
(2) The surviving spouse of any citizen and resident of this State who was honorably discharged and, after the citizen and resident's death, is declared to have suffered a service-connected disability as provided in subsection a. of this section, shall be entitled, on proper claim made therefor, to the same exemption the deceased would have become eligible for. The exemption shall continue during the surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while a resident of this State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the legal owner thereof and actually occupies the dwelling house or any other dwelling house thereafter acquired.
c. The surviving spouse of any citizen and resident of this State, who died in active service in time of war in any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States, shall be entitled, on proper claim made therefor, to an exemption from taxation on the dwelling house and lot or curtilage whereon the same is erected, during the surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while a resident of this State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the legal owner thereof and actually occupies the said dwelling or any other dwelling house thereafter acquired.
d. The surviving spouse of any citizen and resident of this State who died prior to January 10, 1972, that being the effective date of P.L. 1971, c. 398, and whose circumstances were such that, had said law become effective during the deceased's lifetime, the deceased would have become eligible for the exemption granted under this section as amended by said law, shall be entitled, on proper claim made therefor, to the same exemption as the deceased would have become eligible for upon the dwelling house and lot or curtilage occupied by the deceased at the time of death, during the surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while a resident of this State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the legal owner thereof and actually occupies the said dwelling house on the premises to be exempted.
e. Nothing in this act shall be intended to include paraplegia or hemiplegia resulting from locomotor ataxia or other forms of syphilis of the central nervous system, or from chronic alcoholism, or to include other forms of disease resulting from the veteran's own misconduct which may produce signs and symptoms similar to those resulting from paraplegia, osteochondritis, or hemiplegia.
(cf: P.L.1985, c.515, s.2)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill revises the current veteran's total property tax exemption provided to totally disabled, honorably-discharged wartime veterans who received a 100% service-related disability during their wartime service in the United States Armed Forces. Under the current law, veterans who did not receive a 100% service-related disability, but who were partially disabled during their service, are not eligible to receive a proportional property tax exemption. The bill would allow all honorably-discharged wartime veterans who received a service-related permanent disability determination resulting from their wartime service in the United States Armed Forces, including those who received a 100% disability determination, to receive a property tax exemption in the proportional amount of their service-related disability, as declared by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. A veteran who was determined by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to have a 100% service-related disability would still receive a 100% property tax exemption under the statute. However, veterans who received a service-related, wartime permanent disability of less than 100%, as determined by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs would become eligible under the bill to receive a partial property tax exemption, the amount of which would be equal to the degree of their service-connected, wartime service permanent disability as determined by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.
