Bill > A3835

Introduced Session

This bill would establish a new Farmland Assessment Review Commission in the Department of Agriculture. The purpose of the commission would be to regularly review, and to recommend and facilitate the incorporation of appropriate substantive updates to, the State's farmland assessment program, as well as rules, regulations, procedures, protocols, standards, and guidelines adopted for program purposes, in order to promote and ensure, on a Statewide basis, across all local jurisdictions, and regardless of implementing agency, office, or official, the consistent, accurate, reliable, and uniform application and enforcement of, and ongoing site compliance with, existing farmland assessment program requirements, as necessary to ensure the continued fair and equitable Statewide allocation and distribution of farmland assessment program benefits to and among all sites, and only those sites, that continue to satisfy the eligibility requirements therefor, consistent with the requirements of Article VIII, Section I, paragraph 1(b) of the State Constitution and the provisions of the "Farmland Assessment Act of 1964," P.L.1964, c.48 (C.54:4-23.1 et seq.). The commission would consist of nine total members, including the Secretary of Agriculture and the Director of the Division of Taxation in the Department of the Treasury, who would serve as ex officio members, and seven appointed members who are to be residents of the State, including: two residents who are departmental representatives actively engaging in, or overseeing, the operation of the State's farmland assessment program; four residents who are the owners or operators of farmland-assessed sites, or who represent the interests of owners or operators of farmland-assessed sites, in diverse regions of the State; and one resident who is a local tax assessor or other local official responsible for overseeing, or for actively engaging in, farmland assessment benefits eligibility determinations, compliance inspections, or benefits valuations at relevant sites within the local taxing district. Each appointed member of the commission is to be separately and respectively appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture, the Director of the Division of Taxation, the Governor, the Senate President, the Speaker of the General Assembly, the Senate Minority Leader, and the Minority Leader of the General Assembly. The commission would have the duty to engage in the regular evaluation of certain eligibility-related, funding-related, and other specific requirements established under the farmland assessment program, and to develop recommendations designed to simplify and clarify program requirements, in this regard, as well as recommendations that are designed to address and mitigate various program-related funding issues, program-related impacts resulting from inflation or inflationary influences, and conflicts existing between the farmland assessment program and the "Pinelands Protection Act," P.L.1979, c.111 (C.13:18A-1 et seq.), the "Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act," P.L.2004, c.120 (C.13:20-1 et seq.), the State's Green Acres, Blue Acres, and historic preservation programs, the State's forest stewardship plans and program, and any other plans, programs, or laws relating to the acquisition, preservation, stewardship, management, or maintenance of open spaces, green spaces, historic spaces, forested or woodland spaces, and other non-farmland spaces in the State, whether implemented or administered by the State, by individual counties or municipalities therein, or cooperatively, by both State and local government officials, as may be necessary to ensure ongoing fairness, equitability, and uniformity in the Statewide application and enforcement of farmland assessment program requirements, the Statewide allocation and distribution of farmland assessment benefits, and the Statewide achievement of farmland assessment goals. Within one year after the commission's organizational meeting, and annually thereafter, the commission would be required to prepare and submit, to the Governor, the State Board of Agriculture, the Department of Agriculture, the Division of Taxation in the Department of the Treasury, and the Legislature, a written report describing the activities undertaken, setting forth any new findings and recommendations developed thereby during the preceding year, and providing any supplemental data and guidance or advice as may be deemed, by the commission, to be necessary to facilitate the timely and effective implementation of commission-recommended changes to the farmland assessment program, upon the Legislature's approval thereof. The bill would require the Legislature, following its receipt of each annual commission report, and acting through the standing authority of the Senate Economic Growth Committee and the Assembly Commerce, Economic Development, and Agriculture Committee, or their successor committees, to review the recommendations set forth in each such report, and to develop and adopt new legislation, as necessary and appropriate to implement, or to legislatively authorize the implementation of, any commission-recommended program changes of which the Legislature approves. Any recommendations that are included in a commission report, but which have not yet been incorporated into, or otherwise expressly addressed in, legislation adopted pursuant to the bill, would be deemed to be unapproved for implementation at the present time; however, nothing in the bill's provisions would be deemed to prohibit the Legislature from approving and adopting any such previously unapproved recommendations, at a later time, through the enactment of new legislation pursuant to, and as provided by, the bill. Whenever a commission report includes a recommendation advocating for the regular review or the specific updating of guidelines that are required to be developed, pursuant to section 1 of P.L.2013, c.43 (C.54:4-23.3d), for the purposes of the State's farmland assessment program, the bill would require the State Agriculture Development Committee and the Department of Agriculture to cooperatively develop and implement relevant rules, regulations, procedures, and protocols, as appropriate, to facilitate the regular and ongoing review thereby of such guidelines, at intervals recommended by the commission and approved by the Legislature pursuant to the bill, or to facilitate the timely revision and updating of such guidelines, as necessary to incorporate any commission-recommended definitional or language changes or other substantive revisions or updates which have been approved by the Legislature pursuant to the bill, or both. The commission established by this bill is intended, by the sponsor, to provide a formal mechanism and means by which the State can better ensure and facilitate the ongoing review and updating of all relevant State laws, rules, regulations, procedures, protocols, standards, and guidelines which are used in, or which are or may be impacting, the State's farmland assessment program and the allocation of farmland assessment benefits thereunder. Although the sponsor agrees with the premise of keeping New Jersey lands protected from overdevelopment, it is the sponsor's hope and intention that this bill, by facilitating the ongoing commission-initiated review and legislatively approved revision of farmland assessment program requirements, will serve to improve and facilitate clarity, certainty, equitability, and uniformity, both in the Statewide application and enforcement of farmland assessment program requirements and in the allocation and distribution of farmland assessment tax benefits, thereby resulting in a greater sense of fairness, among all taxpayers, in association with the implementation of the State's farmland assessment program and the distribution of tax benefits thereunder.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Aura Dunn (R)*, 

Withdrawn Because Approved P.L.2025, c.274. (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document