ASSEMBLY, No. 420

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

 

 

By Assemblyman KELLY

 

 

An Act requiring that all fees collected by State agencies be deposited to the General Fund as undesignated revenue, supplementing Title 52 of the Revised Statutes.

 

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

    1. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, fees which include but are not limited to fees for licenses, permits or other approvals, charges for services, penalties, fines, assessments, and miscellaneous charges collected by a department or agency of the State pursuant to statute or regulation shall be deposited to the General Fund as undesignated revenue.

 

    2. The Governor's budget message shall, in addition to the information required to be set forth pursuant to section 11 of P.L.1944, c.112 (C.52:27B-20), and pursuant to the "Environmental Fee Accountability Act of 1991," P.L.1991, c.426 (C.52:27B-20.1 et seq.), set forth as anticipated revenue all fees, charges for services, penalties, fines, assessments and miscellaneous charges anticipated to be collected by a department or agency of the State during the budget period. Any appropriation recommended for a department or agency responsible for charging fees and enforcing penalties, fines and assessments for the next ensuing fiscal year shall be set forth as a proposed line item appropriation.

 

    3. This act shall take effect immediately but section 1 shall remain inoperative until the fiscal year next commencing after enactment.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

    This bill requires that all fees which include license fees, charges for services, penalties, fines, assessments and miscellaneous charges collected by State departments and agencies be deposited in the General Fund. There are over 1,000 various fees that are collected. This legislation is intended to change the practice of allowing agencies control over the spending as well as the collection of fee revenues and requires instead that collected fee revenues be deposited in the General Fund subject to the Legislature's power over appropriations. In current practice, fee revenues may be classified as "appropriated funds" and treated as "off-budget" or "below the line" revenues that do not restrict the amount of funds being appropriated. Such practices are not easily controlled by the normal budget process, but the deposit of these fees as undesignated revenue in the General Fund will allow for better oversight of the use of these funds for the operational expenses of the fee collecting agencies. Currently, some agencies could raise as much funds from penalties as "appropriated revenue" as they need and avoid legislative oversight of their operations.

    The bill also requires these changes to be reflected in the Governor's proposed budget recommendations made to the Legislature for each fiscal year.

 

 

 

Requires all fees collected by State agencies be deposited to the General Fund as undesignated revenue; identical procedure to occur in the Governor's recommended budget.