SENATE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 3186

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  NOVEMBER 26, 2018

      The Senate Environment and Energy Committee favorably reports Senate Bill No. 3186 with committee amendments.

      This bill would amend the list of environmental infrastructure projects approved by the Legislature for long-term funding for Fiscal Year 2019 to include new projects and remove certain projects. 

      Under current law, on or before May 15 each year, the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank (“NJIB”) must submit a list of environmental infrastructure projects, known as the project eligibility list, to be approved by the Legislature for long-term funding. The list is introduced in each House in the form of legislative appropriations bills.  In August 2018, P.L.2018, c.85 was enacted into law, which appropriated funds to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for the purpose of financing approximately $810.6 million in Storm Sandy and other environmental infrastructure projects through the NJIB in Fiscal Year 2019. 

      In August 2016, P.L.2016, c.30 was enacted into law, which, among other things, provided the NJIB with the authority to submit an additional project eligibility list, by October 15 of each year, for approval by the Legislature.  Pursuant to that authority, the NJIB submitted an additional project eligibility list and revisions to the list approved in P.L.2018, c.85. This bill would amend P.L.2018, c.85 to include those new projects and remove certain projects. Under this bill and P.L.2018, c.85, approximately $822.9 million would be made available for Storm Sandy and other environmental infrastructure projects in Fiscal Year 2019.

      Certain projects have been removed from the list of projects approved for funding either because they have already received long-term funding or because the projects will not be ready to receive funding before the end of Fiscal Year 2019 under NJIB program requirements.

      Funding sources for NJIB project loans include federal capitalization grants, State bond issue proceeds, State match, various prior legislative appropriations, loan repayments, interest earnings, and market rate loans made by the NJIB. 

      The committee amendments:

      (1)  authorize the DEP to adjust the allowable DEP loan amount for projects authorized in section 3 of the bill to less than 25 percent of the total allowable loan amount to the extent that an insufficiency of funding prevents the DEP from meeting program demand; and

      (2)  update the text of section 3 of P.L.2018, c.85 to reflect changes made to that law in section 1 of P.L.2018, c.137, signed by the Governor on November 1, 2018.