STATEMENT TO

[Third Reprint]

SENATE, No. 2863

with Assembly Floor Amendments

(Proposed by Assemblyman BENSON)

ADOPTED: JUNE 20, 2019

      These Assembly floor amendments revise the process by which counties and municipalities apply for grant awards under the local aid program to require the New Jersey Department of Transportation (department) to execute agreements with a county receiving local aid funds 90 days from the date that the county applies for funding or by April 1st of the following year, whichever is later, and with a municipality receiving local aid funds 90 days from the date the department distributes the award letter to the municipality or by March 1st of the following year, or whichever is later .  

      The amendments require counties to begin expending aid allotments within three years from the date that the county receives notification from the department of that year’s allotment and municipalities to begin expending aid allotments within two years from the date that the municipality receives notification from the department of that year’s allotment, instead of one year for both counties and municipalities.

      The amendments allow the commissioner to reallocate rescinded local aid awards to non-local aid projects, instead of keeping the funding within the local program for use on other local aid projects. 

      The amendments change the circumstances under which a municipality may request an extension and create a finite period for the extension period at six months.  The amendments also make counties ineligible for extensions.  Lastly, the amendments change the contract value for construction contracts funded by appropriations to the local aid program, and in which the bidder needs to be prequalified by the department, from $500,000 to $5,000,000.