ASSEMBLY, No. 1641

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED MARCH 4, 1996

By Assemblymen ASSELTA, GIBSON, Connors, T. Smith, LeFevre, Corodemus, Cottrell, Wolfe, Arnone, Azzolina, DeSopo, Blee, Roma, Malone, Holzapfel and Moran

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. )(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, a sum equal to the amount appropriated in the same fiscal year to the Tidelands Resource Council from monies received from the sales of such lands, to provide for the maintenance dredging of State navigational waterways; provided that, in addition to the amounts appropriated to the department and the council, not less than $500,000 is available for deposit each year into the Fund for the Support of Free Public Schools. If in any year the annual appropriation to the department would result in a deposit of less than $500,000 to the Fund, the appropriation to the department shall be reduced by such amount as shall be necessary to ensure that not less than $500,000 is deposited into the Fund. 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 be made to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) 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. The amount of the appropriation would be equal to the amount appropriated to the Tidelands Resource Council from sales of such lands. If the appropriation to the department would result in a deposit of less than $500,000 to the Fund for the Support of Free Public Schools, the appropriation would be reduced to allow for at least a $500,000 deposit to the Fund. 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 monies 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.