ASSEMBLY, No. 1030

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

By Assemblymen DiGAETANO and KELLY

An Act concerning the self-liquidating purpose of municipal public utilities and amending N.J.S.40A:2-45.

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

    1. N.J.S.40A:2-45 is amended to read as follows:

    40A:2-45. Any municipal public utility shall be deemed to be a self-liquidating purpose if the cash receipts from fees, rents interest on investments and deposits, appropriated surplus or other charges in a fiscal year are sufficient to meet operating and maintenance costs (exclusive of depreciation and obsolescence) and interest and debt redemption charges payable or accruing in such year without recourse to general taxation or the deficit, if any, anticipated in the dedicated utility assessment budget. There may be included in such cash receipts any fees, rents and other charges collected from other departments or utilities of the local unit at a rate not in excess of the fees, rents or other charges to other consumers, customers or users, or if there be no other consumers, customers or users properly comparable, then not in excess of the comparable fees, rents and other charges of privately owned or operated utilities or enterprises. [Any municipal public utility which qualifies under the "Municipal Qualified Bond Act," P.L.1976, c.38 (C.40A:3-1 et seq.), may include interest on investments and deposits and appropriated surplus as revenues, in addition to the other revenues authorized by this section, in a determination of whether that municipal public utility shall be deemed to be a self-liquidating purpose.]

(cf: P.L.1991, c.196)

    2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall be retroactive to December 31, 1987.

STATEMENT

    This bill requires any municipal public utility to include interest on investments and deposits and appropriated surplus when calculating cash receipts for the purpose of determining its self-liquidating status.

    Under current law only a municipal public utility that qualifies under the "Municipal Qualified Bond Act," P.L.1976, c.38 (C.40A:3-1 et seq.) may include interest on investments and deposits and appropriated surplus as revenue in determining whether that municipal public utility can claim a self-liquidating status, which is statutorily referred to as a self-liquidating purpose.

Expands municipal public utility eligibility test for self-liquidating purpose status.