STATE OF NEW JERSEY
219th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2020 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman NANCY J. PINKIN
District 18 (Middlesex)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblyman Calabrese
SYNOPSIS
Provides gross income tax deduction for costs of certain green home improvements that increase building systems resiliency.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act providing a gross income tax deduction for costs of certain green home improvements that increase building systems resiliency, supplementing Title 54A of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. A taxpayer shall be allowed to deduct from the taxpayer's gross income for the taxable year an amount, not to exceed $5,000, paid by the taxpayer during the taxable year for using green home technologies that make the taxpayer's principal residence building systems more resilient, including but not limited to protection against threats of water, mold, wind, fire, extreme temperatures and precipitation levels and storm damage, and that conform with requirements, strategies and compliance paths to establishing green building performance targets pursuant to the New Jersey Green Building Manual established pursuant to section 1 of P.L.2007, c.132 (C.52:27D-130.6) for existing residential buildings.
2. This act shall take effect immediately and apply to taxable years ending after the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill provides a New Jersey gross income tax deduction of up to $5,000 for green building home improvement costs incurred during a taxable year by a taxpayer on their principle residence. The costs of environmentally friendly home improvements that are intended to be rewarded by this income tax deduction are those that use green home technologies that make the taxpayer's principal residence building systems more resilient, including but not limited to protection against threats of water, mold, wind, fire, extreme temperatures and precipitation levels and storm damage. The term resiliency in green building design reflects defensive technologies that improve the ability of building systems to withstand or bounce back from challenges posed by extreme weather events, with minimal or even no damage. These improvements must also conform with the requirements, strategies and compliance paths to establishing green building performance targets under the New Jersey Green Building Manual's standards for existing residential buildings.
The New Jersey Green Building Manual was established pursuant to N.J.S.A.52:27D-130.6 to define baseline performance for green buildings and to provide best practice guidance to owners and builders who participate in any state program that either encourages or requires the construction of green buildings. In addition, there have been several major state and regional legislative initiatives over the last 40 years that have created the foundation for green building policy in New Jersey.
How a building is designed and its systems operate clearly affect the users of the building, the community, and the environment. Green building aims to minimize negative environmental and human health impacts that may result from buildings, restore degraded environments, and contribute to the sustainable management of our air, energy, water and other resources. These methods provide positive and healthy environments that draw connections to more satisfying and productive economic outcomes. Adopting green building practices offers an opportunity to achieve these benefits; compared with conventional building practices, green buildings have demonstrated reductions in energy use by 30%, carbon dioxide emissions by 35%, water use by 50%, and construction waste by 50% or more (USGBC, National Research Agenda, 2007).
The barrier that the New Jersey Green Building Manual seeks to overcome is the slow dissemination of lessons from building-specific performance evaluations into general practice. Builders and users of green buildings have repeatedly asked to know more about what works. The information presented in the best practice strategies and case studies and underlying the compliance paths, which set a baseline of performance for green buildings in New Jersey, were created with the objective of fulfilling this need.