Bill > SCR12

Introduced Session

This concurrent resolution proposes to amend the State Constitution to require that the Energy Tax Receipts Property Tax Relief Act aid and the Consolidated Municipal Property Tax Relief Aid programs be fully funded, and with constitutionally set amounts to be distributed to municipalities as State aid each year. The State collects revenue pursuant to the "Energy Tax Receipts Property Tax Relief Act," P.L.1997, c.167 (C.52:27D-438 et seq.), (the "energy tax") through an assessment on certain producers and consumers of gas, electric, telecommunications, sewerage and water, and other utility services. These fees were formerly collected by municipalities as a gross receipts and franchise tax. However, a 1997 law, P.L.1997, c.162, revised the taxation of energy-related public utilities and, henceforth, receipts collected by the State have been deposited into the "Energy Tax Receipts Property Tax Relief Fund," with a statutorily determined amount required to be distributed as aid to municipalities based on prior distribution amounts adjusted by an inflation index. Consolidated Municipal Property Tax Relief Aid ("CMPTRA") was established by the fiscal year 1996 appropriations act, P.L.1995, c.164, as the consolidation of 14 separate municipal aid programs. Similar to the energy tax, a statutorily determined amount, based on prior distributions adjusted by an inflation index, N.J.S.A.52:27D-442, is required to be distributed as aid to municipalities each year. In certain years, however, the State has not distributed to municipalities the amount of CMPTRA and energy tax aid that is required to be distributed pursuant to statute. Through the annual appropriations act, the statutory dedication for the energy tax, CMPTRA, or both, have been overridden and receipts therefrom have been used for general State funding purposes. This concurrent resolution amends the Constitution to require that the full amount of CMPTRA and energy tax aid be appropriated and distributed to, or on behalf of, municipalities each year. The "full amount" of energy tax and CMPTRA aid means the formulas currently provided for by statute and reproduced in this concurrent resolution, N.J.S.A.52:27D-439(e) and 52:27D-442, respectively. Specifically, this concurrent resolution uses as the CMPTRA base year the amounts of CMPTRA distributed in fiscal year 2009. The energy tax base year is the amount of energy tax set to be distributed in fiscal year 2018. These amounts are then adjusted by an "index rate," for both the first fiscal year in which this concurrent resolution is effective and then readjusted for each fiscal year thereafter. The "index rate" is the rate of annual percentage increase, rounded to the nearest half-percent, in the Implicit Price Deflator for State and Local Government Purchases of Goods and Services, computed and published quarterly by the United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis. The provisions of this concurrent resolution would begin on July 1, 2019, the first day of State fiscal year 2020.

Committee Categories

Jean Stanfield (R)*,  Shirley Turner (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee (on 01/11/2022)

Official Document