ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 1776

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: MARCH 25, 1996

      The Assembly Appropriations Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 1776.

      Assembly Bill No. 1776 reappropriates $376,100 from the "Open Space Preservation Bond Act of 1989," P.L.1989, c.183, to provide grants to landowners for up to 50% of the cost of certain soil and water conservation projects. The monies are reappropriated from an unexpended balance from a previous farmland preservation bond act appropriation in 1993.

      The bill would also appropriate from the "Green Acres, Clean Water, Farmland and Historic Preservation Bond Act of 1992," P.L.1992, c.88, the sum of $2 million to cover the costs, as defined in the bond act, incurred in implementing the "Agriculture Retention and Development Act," P.L.1983, c.32 (C.4:1C-11 et seq.), which is the major law concerned with the farmland preservation and development easement purchase program in the State. This is the first such appropriation from the 1992 bond act to cover costs for the farmland preservation program. It has been over two and one-half years (i.e., in August 1993) since a similar appropriation for such purposes was last made (using 1989 bond act monies), and the next previous such appropriation to that one was in July 1991.

      As reported, this bill is identical to S-1023 of 1996.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      This bill reappropriates $376,000 from the Open Space Preservation Bond Act of 1989 and $2 million from the Green Acres Bond Act of 1992 for administrative costs incurred in implementing the "Agriculture Retention and Development Act." The last appropriation for related administrative costs was in August, 1993.