Bill Text: NJ A3453 | 2010-2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires municipal utilities authorities to offer cash refund, instead of credit against sewerage service charges, to senior citizens who have installed on their primary residence a second water meter registering water usage that does not drain into municipal utilities authorities' sewerage system.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-11-08 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Housing and Local Government Committee [A3453 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2010-A3453-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman SCOTT RUDDER
District 8 (Burlington)
Assemblywoman DAWN MARIE ADDIEGO
District 8 (Burlington)
SYNOPSIS
Requires municipal utilities authorities to offer cash refund, instead of credit against sewerage service charges, to senior citizens who have installed on their primary residence a second water meter registering water usage that does not drain into municipal utilities authorities' sewerage system.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning sewerage service charges imposed by municipal utilities authorities and amending P.L.1957, c.183 and P.L.1992, c.215.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 22 of P.L.1957, c.183 (C.40:14B-22) is amended to read as follows:
22. Every municipal authority is hereby authorized to charge and collect rents, rates, fees or other charges (in this act sometimes referred to as "sewerage service charges") for direct or indirect connection with, or the use or services of, the sewerage system. Such sewerage service charges may be charged to and collected from any person contracting for such connection or use or services or from the owner or occupant, or both of them, of any real property which directly or indirectly is or has been connected with the sewerage system or from or on which originates or has originated sewage or other wastes which directly or indirectly have entered or may enter the sewerage system, and the owner of any such real property shall be liable for and shall pay such sewerage service charges to the municipal authority at the time when and place where such sewerage service charges are due and payable. Such rents, rates, fees and charges, being in the nature of use or service charges, shall as nearly as the municipal authority shall deem practicable and equitable be uniform throughout the district for the same type, class and amount of use or service of the sewerage system, except as permitted by section 1 of P.L.1992, c.215 (C.40:14B-22.2), and may be based or computed either on the consumption of water on or in connection with the real property, making due allowance for commercial use of water, or on the number and kind of water outlets on or in connection with the real property, or on the number and kind of plumbing or sewerage fixtures or facilities on or in connection with the real property, or on the number of persons residing or working on or otherwise connected or identified with the real property, or on the capacity of the improvements on or connected with the real property, or on any other factors determining the type, class and amount of use or service of the sewerage system, or on any combination of any such factors, and may give weight to the characteristics of the sewage and other wastes and any other special matter affecting the cost of treatment and disposal of the same, including chlorine demand, biochemical oxygen demand, concentration of solids and chemical composition, and, as to service outside the district, the cost of installation of necessary physical properties. Every municipal authority shall offer a cash refund, as an alternative to a credit against sewerage service charges, to its customers who are 65 years of age or older and who have installed on their primary residence a second water meter that registers water usage related to a sprinkler system or other use for which the water used by the customer does not directly drain, through the residence, into the sewerage system owned by the municipal authority.
In addition to any such sewerage service charges, a separate charge in the nature of a connection fee or tapping fee, in respect of each connection of any property with the sewerage system, may be imposed upon the owner or occupant of the property so connected. Such connection charges shall be uniform within each class of users, except as provided by section 5 of P.L.2005, c.29 (C.40:14B-22.3) and except as provided by section 5 of P.L.2005, c.173 (C.44:14B-22.4), and the amount thereof shall not exceed the actual cost of the physical connection, if made by the authority, plus an amount computed in the following manner to represent a fair payment towards the cost of the system:
a. The amount representing all debt service, including but not limited to sinking funds, reserve funds, the principal and interest on bonds, and the amount of any loans and the interest thereon, paid by the municipal authority to defray the capital cost of developing the system as of the end of the immediately preceding fiscal year of the authority shall be added to all capital expenditures made by a municipal authority not funded by a bond ordinance or debt for the development of the system as of the end of the immediately preceding fiscal year of the authority.
b. Any gifts, contributions or subsidies to the authority received from, and not reimbursed or reimbursable to, any federal, State, county or municipal government or agency or any private person, and that portion of amounts paid to the authority by a public entity under a service agreement or service contract which is not repaid to the public entity by the authority, shall then be subtracted.
c. The remainder shall be divided by the total number of service units served by the authority at the end of the immediately preceding fiscal year of the authority, and the results shall then be apportioned to each new connector according to the number of service units attributed to that connector. In attributing service units to each connector, the estimated average daily flow of sewage for the connector shall be divided by the average daily flow of sewage from the average single family residence in the authority's district, to produce the number of service units to be attributed.
The connection fee shall be recomputed at the end of each fiscal year of the authority, after a public hearing is held in the manner prescribed in section 23 of P.L.1957, c.183 (C.40:14B-23). The revised connection fee may be imposed upon those who subsequently connect in that fiscal year to the system.
The combination of such connection fee or tapping fee and the aforesaid sewerage service charges shall meet the requirements of section 23 of P.L.1957, c.183 (C.40:14B-23).
(cf: P.L.2005, c.173, s.4)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would require a municipal utilities authority to offer a cash refund, instead of a credit against sewerage service charges, to its customers who are 65 years of age or older and who have installed on their primary residence a second water meter that registers water usage related to a sprinkler system, or other use for which the water used by the customer does not drain directly, through the residence, into the sewerage system owned by the municipal authority. Currently, such second water meter charges are reflected as a credit against the sewerage service charges assessed to each customer by the municipal utilities authority.
While clearly reflective of monies due and owing to a customer, a credit against sewerage system charges is not always seen as desirable by senior citizen customers, because generally, senior citizen households are small (usually one or two persons ), and therefore do not use much water on a day-to-day basis that would go into the sewerage system. It might take a senior citizen customer many months, or close to a year, to "use up" such a credit, and the senior citizen might have other uses for those funds. Requiring a municipal utilities authority to offer a refund, along with a credit, of these funds will allow its senior citizen customers, many of whom live on a fixed income, to determine the most advantageous manner in which to be reimbursed for these second water meter charges.
