STATE OF NEW JERSEY
215th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2012 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Senator BRIAN P. STACK
District 33 (Hudson)
Senator DONALD NORCROSS
District 5 (Camden and Gloucester)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senator Beach
SYNOPSIS
Permits use of excess municipal construction code fee collections for property tax relief.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act concerning local construction code fees and amending P.L.1979, c.121.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 3 of P.L.1979, c.121 (C.52:27D-126a) is amended to read as follows:
3. Where the appointing authority of any municipality shall appoint an enforcing agency and construction board of appeals pursuant to section 8 of P.L.1975, c. 217, the municipal governing body by ordinance, in accordance with standards established by the commissioner, shall set enforcing agency fees for plan review, construction permit, certificate of occupancy, demolition permit, moving of building permit, elevator permit and sign permit, provided, however, that [such fees shall not exceed the annual costs for the operation of the enforcing agency] whenever a municipality has collected fees in excess of those necessary to operate its enforcing agency office, the municipal governing body may elect, by resolution, to use all or a portion of those excess fees to reduce the amount required to be raised by the municipal property tax levy in either of the next two succeeding local budget years, or in both years, notwithstanding limits in regulations and rules to the contrary.
(cf: P.L.1979, c.121, s.3)
2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to excess fees collected during a municipality's 2009 local budget year and thereafter.
STATEMENT
This bill would permit a municipality that has collected construction code fees in excess of its requirements to operate its construction code enforcing agency office, to use those excess fees to reduce the amount required to be raised by property taxes for municipal purposes in the following two local budget years. The bill eliminates the requirement that all of the fees collected by the construction code enforcing agency be used to pay for the operation of that enforcing agency. The bill does not change current law that requires fees to be set in accordance with standards promulgated by the Commissioner of Community Affairs. These standards should continue to ensure that a municipality would not raise its construction code fees in order to create an additional source of general municipal revenue.