ASSEMBLY, No. 968

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

 

 

By Assemblymen ASSELTA and GIBSON

 

 

An Act dedicating certain moneys for the purposes of maintenance dredging, amending N.J.S.18A:56-5 and supplementing Title 12 of the Revised Statutes.

 

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

 

    1. N.J.S.18A:56-5 is amended to read as follows:

    18A:56-5. All lands belonging to this State now or formerly lying under water are dedicated to the support of public schools. [All] Except as provided pursuant to P.L. , c. (C. )(now before the Legislature as this bill), all moneys hereafter received from the sales of such lands shall be paid to the board of trustees, and shall constitute a part of the permanent school fund of the State. To the extent that moneys received from the sales of these lands may, by law, be made payable to any purposes other than the school fund, these moneys shall not be paid to other purposes so long as there is a deficiency in the school bond reserve.

(cf: P.L.1980, c.72, s.3)

 

    2. (New section) Notwithstanding any provisions of N.J.S.18A:56-5 to the contrary, there shall be appropriated annually to the Department of Environmental Protection, from the moneys received from the sales of any lands belonging to the State now or formerly lying under water, the sum of $4 million to provide for the maintenance dredging of State navigational waterways, provided that the amount appropriated herein does not reduce the amount in the Fund for the Support of Free Public Schools dedicated as a bond reserve pursuant to N.J.S.18A:56-19 or N.J.S.18A:56-21. If in any year the annual appropriation would result in any reduction of the fund's bond reserve, the appropriation shall be reduced by the amount that the appropriation would reduce the amount of the bond reserve. The department shall establish and annually update a priority list of dredging projects eligible to receive funding from moneys appropriated pursuant to this section.

 

    3. This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

    This bill would require that an annual appropriation of $4 million be made from the moneys received from the sales of any lands belonging to the State now or formerly lying under water, to provide for the maintenance dredging of State navigational waterways, provided that the amount appropriated does not reduce the amount in the Fund for the Support of Free Public Schools dedicated as a bond reserve pursuant to N.J.S.18A:56-19 or N.J.S.18A:56-21. If in any year the annual appropriation would result in any reduction of the fund's bond reserve, the appropriation would be reduced accordingly. To the extent that an appropriation would reduce the amount of the bond reserve, no appropriation could be made in that year. The bill also requires the department to establish and annually update a priority list of dredging projects eligible to receive funding from moneys appropriated pursuant to the bill.

    The bill also amends N.J.S.18A:56-5 to authorize the use of moneys from the lease of riparian lands, which are currently dedicated to the fund for the support of free public schools, for maintenance dredging as provided by section 2 of the bill.

 

 

 

Authorizes annual appropriation of moneys received from riparian land leases for maintenance dredging.