SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 2501

with Senate committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: JUNE 25, 2001

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 2501 with committee amendments.

      Senate Bill No. 2501 makes various supplemental appropriations for fiscal year 2001 totaling $94,078,500: $57,080,000 from the General Fund and $36,998,500 from the Property Tax Relief Fund. The bill also makes various appropriations from the "Water Supply Bond Act of 1981" and the Sanitary Landfill Contingency Fund for certain clean water and sanitary landfill closure purposes. The appropriations are as follows:

GENERAL FUND:

Department of Community Affairs

      The $500,000 Grants-In-Aid appropriation will provide the State match for federal funding for the buyout of 30 flood-prone properties in Collingswood that were not included in the $6,000,000 set aside in Hurricane Floyd funds for property buyouts.

      The $400,000 Grants-In-Aid appropriation to St. Francis Center LBICC, Inc. is for the swimming pool complex.

DEDICATED FUNDS:

Department of Environmental Protection

      The $15,000,000 Grants-In-Aid appropriation from the Sanitary Landfill Contingency Fund is for a grant to Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders, for the costs of the proper closure of the unlined portion of the Southern Ocean Landfill, Inc. located in Ocean Township, Ocean County. This grant appropriation also covers costs to meet the post-closure period obligations at the sanitary landfill facility and to offset the amounts heretofore expended on leachate management at the sanitary landfill facility.

      The appropriations from the "Water Supply Bond Act of 1981," are made for the following purposes and are subject to the approval of the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting in amounts not to exceed:

For Drought Monitoring and Telemetry System ...... $950,000

For Study of New Jersey's Water Supply

   Interconnection System ....................................... $1,000,000

For Study Assessing Groundwater

  Contamination from

  Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) ................... $1,000,000

For Capital Expenses related to Well Drilling

  for purposes of Monitoring

  Groundwater Quality ............................................ $250,000

Department of Health and Senior Services

      These Grants-In-Aid appropriations include $3,000,000 for the Children's Hospital of New Jersey at Newark Beth Israel, $2,000,000 for the Cooper Health System, and $1,000,000 for the Garden State Cancer Center.

Department of State

      This Grants-In-Aid appropriation is $500,000 to the Agricultural Experiment Station for the New Jersey Millennium Agricultural Viability Initiative.

Department of Transportation

      This Direct State Services appropriation of $18,500,000 is for unanticipated costs related to snow removal during the winter of 2000-2001. Included in this amount is $5,000,000 that will be returned to the Underground Storage Tank account. These funds were utilized for snow removal costs in the Inter-Departmental Accounts.

Department of the Treasury

      This Grants-In-Aid appropriation provides $1,000,000 for Aid to Independent Colleges and Universities.

Inter-Departmental Accounts

      This Direct State Services appropriation of $30,180,000 for the Salary Increases and Other Benefits account is for retroactive and current year salary increases related to recently settled contracts in the Department of Corrections and the Department of Law and Public Safety.

PROPERTY TAX RELIEF FUND

Department of Education

      The State Aid appropriation of $10,228,000 for Abbott v. Burke Parity Remedy Aid is to adjust the payments to the Abbott districts in the current fiscal year due to the recalculation of projected amounts using actual enrollments required pursuant to language provisions of the fiscal year 2001 annual appropriations act, P.L.2000, c.53.

      The State Aid appropriation of $17,170,500 for Additional Abbott v. Burke State Aid will provide $3,624,000 to the New Brunswick school district for its early childhood program and $1,327,600 to the Phillipsburg school district, $760,000 to the Pleasantville City school district, $7,313,000 to the Trenton City school district, and $4,419,500 to the Vineland City school district for supplemental funding requests.

      The State Aid appropriation of $6,00,000 is for the Teacher Quality Mentoring program.

      The State Aid appropriation of $3,600,000 for Additional Health Benefits provides additional funding to cover an estimate that this year's growth in the retiree membership in State health benefits plans will be 20% greater than previously anticipated.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amendments added the appropriations made in language provisions under the Department of Environmental Protection that are from the "Water Supply Bond Act of 1981" and the Sanitary Landfill Contingency Fund for certain clean water and sanitary landfill closure purposes. The committee amendments also added the appropriations in the Department of Health for grants for the Children's Hospital of New Jersey at Newark Beth Israel, the Cooper Health System, and the Garden State Cancer Center. The committee amendments also added the grant for the Agricultural Experiment Station for the New Jersey Millennium Agricultural Viability Initiative and the grant for Aid to Independent Colleges and Universities. The committee amendments also added the State Aid appropriation for Teacher Quality Mentoring.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      This bill makes various supplemental appropriations for FY2001 totaling $94,998,500: $57,080,000 from the General Fund and $36,998,500 from the Property Tax Relief Fund and also makes various appropriations from the "Water Supply Bond Act of 1981" and the Sanitary Landfill Contingency Fund for certain clean water and sanitary landfill closure purposes.