Bill > S1701

Introduced Session

This bill would require an application for a long term property tax exemption to include a cost-benefit analysis and for the mayor or other chief executive officer of the municipality to produce an independent cost-benefit analysis to be submitted along with the application to the municipal governing body before it can decide on the exemption. The bill would also require a municipal governing body to include in its resolution approving or disapproving of a project for which a long term tax exemption is sought specific findings about the net impact of the project on the finances of the affected local governments, including the municipality, county, and school district. This bill would require that municipalities consider and evaluate whether an investment in a redevelopment project through the grant of a long term property tax exemption will generate satisfactory revenue returns to the municipality, as well as the financial impacts to counties, school districts, and other local governments, and would allow the public to do the same by making the required cost-benefit analyses and findings part of the public record. Under the bill, the cost-benefit analyses and financial impact findings required for grants of long term property tax exemptions would have to be posted on the Internet website of the granting municipality. If the municipality does not have a website, this information would have to be provided for public inspection on the Internet website of the Department of Community Affairs (DCA). The bill would also require municipalities that grant new long term property tax exemptions to provide pertinent information about each approved project to DCA, which would post that information, along with existing long term property tax exemption information retrieved from plain language budget summaries submitted to DCA, in a database, sorted by municipality, on its Internet website.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Troy Singleton (D)*,  Brian Stack (D)*,  Stephen Sweeney (D)*,  Steven Oroho (R), 

Reported from Senate Committee with Amendments, 2nd Reading (on 06/11/2018)