Sponsored by:
Senator SHIRLEY K. TURNER
District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)
Assemblywoman VERLINA REYNOLDS-JACKSON
District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)
Assemblyman ANTHONY S. VERRELLI
District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblyman Holley
SYNOPSIS
Establishes Trenton Capital City Aid Program; appropriates $10 million.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act establishing the Trenton Capital City Aid Program, supplementing P.L.1966, c.293 (C.52:27D-1 et seq.), and making an appropriation.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. There is established the Trenton Capital City Aid Program, for which there shall be appropriated in each fiscal year an amount not less than $10,000,000 for the City of Trenton. Funds received by the city shall be used solely and exclusively by the city for the purpose of reducing the amount to be raised through the property tax levy for municipal purposes. If in any year the funds dedicated to the city through the Trenton Capital City Aid Program exceed the amount to be raised through the property tax levy for municipal purposes, the remaining balance of the State aid payment shall be allocated in equal amounts to Mercer County and the Trenton School District to be used to reduce the amount of the property tax levies for county and school purposes, notwithstanding the provisions of this section, or of any other law to the contrary. The Director of the Division of Local Government Services in the Department of Community Affairs shall certify annually that the city has complied with the requirements of this section.
2. There is appropriated from the Property Tax Relief Fund to the Department of Community Affairs for State Fiscal Year 2019 the sum of $10,000,000 for the Trenton Capital City Aid Program.
3. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill establishes the Trenton Capital City Aid Program to provide not less than $10 million in each State fiscal year to the City of Trenton in recognition of its unique status as the State capital, and the budgetary stress experienced annually by the city resulting from the property tax-exempt status of State property in the city. Trenton Capital City Aid Program funds received by the city are to be used solely and exclusively by the city for the purpose of reducing the amount the city is required to raise through the property tax levy for municipal purposes. However, if the amount of funds received by the city in Trenton Capital City Aid Program aid in any year exceeds the amount required to be raised through the property tax levy for municipal purposes, the remaining balance of the State aid payment shall be allocated in equal amounts to Mercer County and the Trenton School District to be used to reduce the amount of the property tax levies for county and school purposes.
The bill also makes an appropriation of $10 million from the Property Tax Relief Fund to the Department of Community Affairs for State Fiscal Year 2019 for the Trenton Capital City Aid Program.
In State Fiscal Years 2004 through 2010, there was a separate category of State aid, Trenton Capital City Aid, provided to Trenton by the State in acknowledgment of its unique status as the State’s capital city, and the fact that a significant amount of real property located in the city is State-owned, and therefore property tax-exempt. In addition, Trenton’s property taxpayers pay for police, fire, sanitation, public health, and public works services provided to the State employees who work in the city, but who do not contribute toward the cost of those services. The State Fiscal Year 2011 Appropriations Act, P.L.2011, c.85, eliminated this State aid program.