ASSEMBLY, No. 657
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION
By Assemblymen ZECKER and COHEN
An Act concerning municipal recycling activities, and amending and supplementing P.L.1981, c.278.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 4 of P.L.1981, c.278 (C.13:1E-95) is amended to read as follows:
4. a. There is levied upon the owner or operator of every registered solid waste facility a recycling tax of $1.50 per ton of all solid waste accepted for disposal or transfer at the solid waste facility. In the event that any solid waste is measured upon acceptance for disposal or transfer by other than tons, the tax shall be levied on the equivalents thereof as shall be determined by the director. The recycling tax shall not be imposed on the owner or operator of [a resource recovery facility, upon the acceptance of solid waste for disposal at that facility, or on the owner or operator of]:
(1) a sanitary landfill facility that is designed and operated for the acceptance for disposal of residual ash or of solid waste delivered to a resource recovery facility that cannot be processed at the resource recovery facility;
(2) a solid waste transfer station facility [which] that is designed and operated solely for receiving and transferring solid waste from collection vehicles to haulage vehicles for the purposes of facilitating the transportation of solid waste[, upon the acceptance of solid waste for transfer] to an in-State solid waste facility for permanent disposal;
(3) a solid waste composting facility;
(4) a materials recovery facility, as defined in section 3 of P.L.1991, c.381 (C.48:13A-7.3);
(5) a privately-owned, noncommercial, onsite industrial solid waste facility that does not accept solid waste generated from any other source and that is dedicated solely to the disposal of solid waste, including hazardous wastes, generated by the owner or operator of the solid waste facility; or
(6) a solid waste facility for the acceptance for disposal of solid waste generated exclusively by an agency of the federal government if a solid waste collector submits to the owner or operator an itemized invoice, signed and verified by an authorized officer of the federal agency, indicating the number of tons of solid waste to be disposed of, and a copy of the contract with the federal agency for the collection of solid waste with an effective date prior to May 1, 1985, in the case of a sanitary landfill facility, or prior to January 1, 1996 in the case of any other solid waste facility.
The recycling tax shall be levied on the owner or operator for acceptance of solid waste generated by a federal agency if the contract between the federal agency and the solid waste collector was entered into, or renewed, on or after the applicable date.
b. (1) Every owner or operator of a registered solid waste facility shall, on or before the twentieth day of the month following the close of each tax period, render a return under oath to the director on such form as may be prescribed by the director indicating the number of tons of solid waste accepted for disposal or transfer, which is subject to the recycling tax pursuant to subsection a. of this section, and at [said] the same time the owner or operator shall pay the full amount of tax due.
(2) Every owner or operator of a registered solid waste facility, which accepts solid waste for disposal or transfer, and which is subject to the tax under subsection a. of this section, shall register with the director on forms prescribed by the director, within 20 days after the first acceptance of this waste[, register with the director on forms prescribed by him].
c. If a return required by this [act] section is not filed, or if a return when filed is incorrect or insufficient in the opinion of the director, the amount of tax due shall be determined by the director from such information as may be available. Notice of such determination shall be given to the taxpayer liable for the payment of the recycling tax. Such determination shall finally and irrevocably fix the tax unless the person against whom it is assessed, within 30 days after receiving notice of such determination, shall apply to the director for a hearing, or unless the director on his own motion shall redetermine the same. After such hearing the director shall give notice of his determination to the person to whom the recycling tax is assessed.
d. Any taxpayer who shall fail to file his return when due or to pay any tax when the same becomes due, as herein provided, shall be subject to such penalties and interest as provided in the "State Tax Uniform Procedure Law," R.S.54:48-1 et seq. If the Division of Taxation determines that the failure to comply with any provision of this section was excusable under the circumstances, it may remit such part or all of the penalty as shall be appropriate under such circumstances.
e. (1) (Deleted by amendment, P.L.1987, c.76.)
(2) (Deleted by amendment, P.L.1987, c.76.)
f. In addition to the other powers granted to the director in this section, he is hereby authorized and empowered:
(1) To delegate to any officer or employee of his division such of his powers and duties as he may deem necessary to carry out efficiently the provisions of this section, and the person or persons to whom such power has been delegated shall possess and may exercise all of said powers and perform all of the duties delegated by the director;
(2) To prescribe and distribute all necessary forms for the implementation of this section.
g. The recycling tax imposed by this section shall be governed in all respects by the provisions of the "State Tax Uniform Procedure Law," R.S.54:48-1 et seq., except only to the extent that a specific provision of this section may be in conflict therewith.
(cf: P.L.1987, c.102, s.35)
2. Section 5 of P.L.1981, c.278 (C.13:1E-96) is amended to read as follows:
5. a. The State Recycling Fund (hereinafter referred to as the "fund") is established as a nonlapsing, revolving fund. The fund shall be administered by the Department of Environmental Protection, and shall be credited with all recycling tax revenue collected by the division pursuant to section 4 of P.L.1981, c.278 (C.13:1E-95). Interest received on moneys in the fund and sums received as repayment of principal and interest on outstanding loans made from the fund shall be credited to the fund. The Department of Environmental Protection, in the administration of the fund, is authorized to assign to the New Jersey Economic Development Authority the responsibility for making credit evaluations of applicants for loans, for servicing loans on behalf of the department, and, the provisions of any other law to the contrary notwithstanding, for making recommendations as to the approval or denial of loans pursuant to this section. The department is further authorized to pay or reimburse the authority in the amounts as the department agrees are appropriate for all services rendered by the authority in connection with any assignment of responsibility under the terms of this section out of moneys held in the fund for loans and the loan guarantee program.
b. [Moneys] Unless otherwise expressly provided by the specific appropriation thereof by the Legislature, moneys in the fund shall be allocated and used for the following purposes and no others:
(1) Not less than 40% of the estimated annual balance of the fund shall be used for the annual expenses of a program for recycling grants to municipalities or counties in those instances where a county, at its own expense, provides for the collection, processing and marketing of recyclable materials on a regional basis. The amount of these grants shall be calculated on the basis of the total number of tons of recyclable materials annually recycled from residential, commercial and institutional sources within that municipality, or group of municipalities in the case of a county recycling program, except that no such grant shall exceed $10.00 per ton of recyclable materials recycled. The department may allocate a portion of these grant moneys as bonus grants to municipalities and counties in those instances where a municipality or county, at its own expense, provides for the collection of recyclable materials in its recycling program. The department shall announce each year the total amount of moneys available in the bonus grant fund.
A municipality may distribute a portion of its grant moneys to nonprofit groups that are located within that municipality and which have contributed to the receipt of the recycling grant, except that this distribution shall not exceed the value of approved documented tonnage contributed by a nonprofit group.
A municipality may designate any nonprofit group as a recycling agent. A recycling agent shall receive that part of the municipality's recycling grant under this subsection that represents the percentage of the grant received by the municipality due to the documented tonnage contributed by that recycling agent. Moneys received by a recycling agent shall be expended only for its recycling program. Any moneys not used for recycling shall be returned by the recycling agent to the municipality.
To be eligible for a grant pursuant to paragraph (1) of this subsection, a municipality or county in the case of a county recycling program shall demonstrate that the recyclable materials recycled by the municipal or county recycling program were not diverted from a commercial recycling program already in existence on the effective date of the ordinance or resolution establishing the municipal or county recycling program[.
No recycling grant to any municipality shall be used for constructing or operating any facility for the baling of wastepaper or for the shearing, baling or shredding of ferrous or nonferrous materials];
(2) Not less than 35% of the estimated annual balance of the fund shall be used to provide low interest loans or loan guarantees to recycling businesses and industries, and to provide moneys for research into collection, market stimulation and reuse techniques applicable to recycling or the disposition of recyclable materials, or to contract for market studies, and to establish a sufficient reserve for a loan guarantee program for recycling businesses and industries;
(3) Not more than 7% of the estimated annual balance of the fund shall be used for State recycling program planning and program funding, including the administrative expenses thereof;
(4) Not more than 8% of the estimated annual balance of the fund shall be used for county recycling program planning and program funding, including the administrative expenses thereof; and
(5) Not less than 10% of the estimated annual balance of the fund shall be used for a public information and education program concerning recycling activities.
(cf: P.L.1990, c.117, s.1)
3. (New section) The provisions of any other law, rule or regulation to the contrary notwithstanding, moneys in the State Recycling Fund shall be allocated and used solely for the purposes prescribed in section 5 of P.L.1981, c.278 (C.13:1E-96), unless otherwise expressly provided by the specific appropriation thereof by the Legislature.
4. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would remove the tax exemption for solid waste accepted for disposal at a resource recovery facility, thereby extending the recycling tax to all registered solid waste facilities.
The bill would also expressly provide that the recycling tax revenues deposited in the Recycling Fund, which are used primarily for funding the municipal tonnage grant program, cannot be diverted for any extraneous purpose, except by the specific appropriation thereof by the Legislature.
In the State FY 1995 appropriations act (P.L.1994, c.67), $14.3 million in recycling tax revenues were diverted from the Recycling Fund to the General Fund by the Governor and Legislature for budgetary purposes. As a result, all municipalities, including those with cost-efficient, successful recycling efforts, have realized a considerable loss of needed funding in the form of annual tonnage grants. These moneys are needed by municipalities to assist them in financing costly State-mandated municipal recycling programs.
This bill would deter, in some measure, this kind of diversion in the future by making the funding of the municipal tonnage grant program the first statutorily-based priority of publicly-supported recycling programs.
Prohibits use of moneys in the Recycling Fund except for statutorily authorized purposes.