FISCAL NOTE TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 708

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: MAY 16, 1997

      Assembly Bill No. 708 of 1996 would exempt churches and other religious organizations from the payment of fees charged under the Uniform Fire Code for inspection of certain facilities that the code classifies as "life hazard uses", including schools and day care facilities. It would not exempt them from compliance with the physical requirements for fire safety that the code imposes upon such facilities.

      The Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has advised the Office of Legislative Services (OLS) that since the fire code enforcement program is entirely fee-supported, the bill will only affect State revenues if the Legislature wishes to appropriate the money that would make it possible to avoid raising all other fire code fees in order to cover the deficit the bill will create if enacted.

      The DCA is not able to accurately estimate the fiscal impact of this bill. The DCA notes that approximately $1.2 million in annual life hazard use (LHU) fees is paid for LHU's in categories likely to be covered by this bill. The DCA does not know what percentage of this revenue, of which 35 percent is retained by the Division of Fire Safety and 65 percent is remitted to municipalities and fire districts, will be lost and therefore have to be made up by higher fees imposed on other LHU's, since the department does not differentiate in its categorization between religious organizations and other owners of similar structures.

      The DCA estimates that fees on all remaining LHU's will have to be increased by approximately 10 per cent to cover the deficit that this bill would create. Most local enforcing agencies are entirely fee-supported, so the level of fee revenue must be maintained if the local agencies are not to discontinue or curtail their code enforcement activities.

      The OLS has no information that would cause it to disagree with the DCA's analysis.

This fiscal note has been prepared pursuant to P.L.1980, c.67.