Bill Text: NJ A1709 | 2010-2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Permits county government to limit appropriation for county prosecutors' offices.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-01-12 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Judiciary Committee [A1709 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2010-A1709-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
214th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2010 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman JOHN J. BURZICHELLI
District 3 (Salem, Cumberland and Gloucester)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman Coyle
SYNOPSIS
Permits county government to limit appropriation for county prosecutors' offices.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act concerning the payment of expenses incurred by the county prosecutor and amending N.J.S.2A:158-7.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. N.J.S. 2A:158-7 is amended to read as follows:
2A:158-7. [All] a. Except as provided in subsection b. of this section, all necessary expenses incurred by the prosecutor for each county in the detection, arrest, indictment and conviction of offenders against the laws shall, upon being certified to by the prosecutor and approved, under his hand, by a judge of the Superior Court, be paid by the county treasurer whenever the same shall be approved by the board of chosen freeholders of such county. The amount or amounts to be expended shall not exceed the amount fixed by the board of chosen freeholders in its regular or emergency appropriation, unless such expenditure is specifically authorized by order of the assignment judge of the Superior Court for such county, except that in no case shall a county be required to expend an amount that exceeds the permissible limit set forth in subsection b. of this section.
b. In the preparation of its annual budget, a county may limit its appropriation of funds to satisfy its obligations set forth in subsection a. of this section to an amount equal to four percent more than the previous fiscal year's appropriation for such purposes.
(cf: P.L.1991,c.91,s.126)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill permits a county governing body to limit its appropriation of funds to support the office of the county prosecutor to an amount that equals four percent more than the previous year's appropriation.
The office of the county prosecutor is created and fixed by the New Jersey State Constitution which provides that the Governor nominates and appoints a county prosecutor, with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of five years.
State law currently provides that each of New Jersey's 21 county prosecutors serves as the chief law enforcement officer in his county and is responsible for enforcing the criminal laws of the State in the county where he serves. Despite the fact that county prosecutors are primarily charged with enforcing State law and function independently of the county governing structure, the funding for the prosecutors' offices is derived mainly from appropriations by the county governing body.
In the view of the sponsor, the bifurcated funding and managerial system that exists with respect to the county prosecutors' offices has proven to be exceedingly cumbersome for county officials in the preparation of their annual budgets. County governing bodies are routinely required to shift resources away from the provision of other essential county services for county residents in order to fulfill their State statutory obligation to fund the office of the county prosecutor. This system has proven to be particularly onerous in recent years as counties have evolved from small governmental units with limited responsibilities to complex and sophisticated governmental entities responsible for the delivery of a wide variety of essential services on a regional basis.
Currently, N.J.S.2A:158-7 provides that all necessary expenses incurred by the prosecutor in each county in the detection, arrest, indictment and conviction of offenders are to be paid by the county treasurer when approved by the board of chosen freeholders. In addition, this section provides that the amount to be expended shall not exceed the amount fixed by the board of chosen freeholders in its regular or emergency appropriation, unless such expenditure is specifically authorized by order of the Assignment Judge of such county. This established mechanism whereby the prosecutor can apply to the court for approval of expenditures beyond those provided for in appropriations made by the board is known as a "Bigley hearing." In Re Application of Bigley, 55 N.J. 53 (1969). During this type of hearing the Assignment Judge "exercises a delegated legislative function and that in doing so he must decide what ought to be rather than whether the action or inaction of the freeholders was arbitrary or unreasonable." Id. At 57.
This bill amends N.J.S.2A:158-7 to limit the amount of additional expenditures for the prosecutor's office which can be authorized by the Assignment Judge to an amount equal to four percent more than the previous fiscal year's appropriation for such purposes. This four percent cap is similar to the four percent statutory tax levy cap recently enacted by the Legislature pursuant to P.L.2007, c. 62, for county governments.
The sponsor believes that this legislation strikes a reasonable balance between recognizing the needs of county prosecutors to have adequate funds at their disposal to effectively prosecute crimes within their counties and the requirement of county governing bodies to operate their budgets within the statutorily imposed limitations.
