ASSEMBLY, No. 2599

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED DECEMBER 16, 1996

By Assemblywoman WEINBERG

An Act providing for the abolishment of the New Jersey Highway Authority and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, transferring their functions, powers and duties to the Department of Transportation, amending P.L.1984, c.73, and supplementing chapter 1A of Title 27 of the Revised Statutes.

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

    1. (New section) As used in this act:

    "Authorities" means the New Jersey Highway Authority and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.

    "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Transportation of the State of New Jersey.

    "Department" means the Department of Transportation of the State of New Jersey.

    "Highway project" means a highway or turnpike project authorized by P.L.1952, c.16 (C.27:12B-1 et seq.) or P.L.1948, c.454 (C.27:23-1 et seq.).

    "New Jersey Highway Authority" means the public body established under section 4 of P.L.1952, c.16 (C.27:12B-4) or its successor.

    "New Jersey Turnpike Authority" means the public body established under section 3 of P.L.1948, c.454 (C.27:23-3) or its successor.

    2. (New section) Until all bonds or notes issued before the effective date of this act, by the authorities to finance any projects, and the interest thereon are paid in full, or a sufficient amount for the payment of all such bonds, and the interest thereon, to the maturity thereof, is set aside in trust for the benefit of the bondholders, no resolution or other action of the authorities providing for the issuance of bonds, refunding bonds or other obligations shall be adopted or otherwise made effective by the authorities except as shall be specifically authorized by law.

    3. (New section) At any time that tolls are not required for the purpose of carrying out and performing the terms and provisions of any contract with or for the benefit of bondholders, the authorities shall cause tolls for the use of the projects to be charged at the same rates as were last charged and collected by the authorities pursuant to law and no change or revision shall be made in such rates except as shall be specifically authorized by law.

    4. (New section) When all bonds or notes issued by the authorities to finance any projects, and the interest thereon, have been paid or a sufficient amount for the payment of all those bonds or notes, and the interest thereon, to the maturity thereof, has been set aside in trust for the benefit of the bondholders, as provided in P.L.19 , c. (now before the Legislature as Assembly Bill No. of 1996):

    a. The authorities shall be abolished and the terms of the members of the authorities then in office shall cease and terminate. The functions, powers and duties of the authorities, except the power to issue bonds, notes or other indebtedness and to fix and revise tolls, shall be continued, but shall be transferred to the department and shall thereafter be exercised and administered by the commissioner.

    b. The bonds shall cease to be entitled to any lien, benefit or security under any resolution of the authorities, and all covenants, agreements and obligations of the authorities to the holders of the bonds shall be discharged and satisfied.

    5. (New section) Upon the abolishment of the authorities as provided in section 4 of this act, all projects or facilities of these authorities shall be transferred to the department and all highway projects shall become part of the State highway system and shall, except as otherwise provided in section 12 of this act, be maintained by the department as toll roads. The commissioner shall cause tolls for the use of the highway projects to be charged and collected by the department at the same rates as were charged and collected by the authorities immediately prior to their abolishment and no change or revision shall thereafter be made in those rates by the commissioner without the approval of the Governor and the Legislature, after notice and hearing, at least 45 days prior to the date on which the change or revision is proposed to become effective.

    6. (New section) Upon the abolishment provided for in section 4 of this act, all employees of the authorities shall be transferred to the department and shall become State employees. All records and property of the authorities, except as otherwise provided in this act, shall be transferred to the department and all outstanding obligations and commitments lawfully undertaken or contracted for by the authorities shall be assumed and performed by the department from the special fund established by the State Treasurer pursuant to subsection c. of section 7 of this act or as provided in subsection d. of section 7 of this act.

    7. (New section) a. There is hereby created in the General Fund a special fund to be entitled the "Toll Road General Reserve Fund" to be maintained by the State Treasurer which may be held in depositories as may be selected by the State Treasurer and invested and reinvested as other funds in the custody of the treasurer in the manner provided by law. Upon the abolishment provided for in section 4 of this act, there shall be deposited in this fund the following:

    (1) Proceeds of the sale of bonds previously issued by the authorities and not already expended;

    (2) All tolls, receipts and other revenues of the authorities not deposited in any funds established by any resolution of the authorities;

    (3) All amounts on deposit in funds established by any resolution of the authorities; and

    (4) All money, bonds, stocks and other securities and all evidences thereof owned by the authorities or held by any trustees under any resolution of the authorities.

    b. The State Treasurer shall, on or before the expiration of the sixth month following the establishment of the "Toll Road General Reserve Fund," transfer and apply the balances in the fund as follows, and in the following order of priority:

    (1) To the "Toll Road Authorities Retirement Bond Debt Service Fund," established by P.L. , c. (now before the Legislature as Assembly Bill No. of 1996), such amounts as are necessary, along with estimated toll and other receipts and revenues from the toll roads and other authority projects now under the jurisdiction of the department, to provide for the entire debt service of the bonds issued under that act.

    (2) To the "Transportation Trust Fund Account" established pursuant to section 20 of P.L.1984, c.73 (C.27:1B-20), to be included in the funds of the "New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund Authority," such amounts as remain in this fund after the transferral of funds required for debt service.

    c. Moneys which have been pledged or set aside for the payment of contracts or agreements previously entered into by the authorities in connection with the operation of projects under their jurisdiction shall not be transferred as provided in this section, but shall be set aside in a special fund by the State Treasurer for that purpose.

    d. Payments due to the State pursuant to a contract or agreement entered into by the State and the authorities pursuant to subsection (o) of section 5 of P.L.1952, c.16 (C.27:12B-5) and subsection b. of section 1 of P.L.1966, c.8 (C.27:23-5.8) shall not be transferred as provided in this section, but shall be paid as due in the year following the abolishment, if not already paid for that year. Thereafter, as provided in section 24 of P.L. , c. (now before the Legislature as Assembly Bill No. of 1996), these payments shall be made from the "Toll Road Authorities Retirement Bond Debt Service Fund."

    8. (New section) a. Whenever in any law, rule, regulation, order, contract, document, judicial or administrative proceeding or otherwise, reference is made to the authorities, the same shall mean and refer to the commissioner or department as the case may be.

    b. The abolishment of the authorities shall not affect the orders, rules and regulations heretofore made or promulgated by the authorities. These orders, rules and regulations insofar as they are not inconsistent herewith shall continue in effect until amended or repealed pursuant to law.

    c. The provisions of P.L.1952, c.16 (C.27:12B-1 et seq.) and P.L.1948, c.454 (C.27:23-1 et seq.), insofar as they are not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, shall continue in effect and any reference therein or in any other law to the authorities, to the chairman or any member thereof shall be deemed to mean and refer to the commissioner or department as the case may be.

    9. (New section) All transfers directed by this act shall be made in accordance with the "State Agency Transfer Act," P.L.1971, c.375 (C.52:14D-1 et seq.). Nothing in this act shall be construed to deprive employees of their rights, privileges, obligations or status with respect to any pension or retirement system.

    10. (New section) Upon transferral of the employees of the authorities to the Department of Transportation, they shall retain all of their rights and benefits under existing labor agreements or contracts until such time as a new or revised agreement or contract is agreed to or these agreements or contracts shall expire. All such employees shall be entitled to training or retraining opportunities to be provided by the State. All existing bargaining agents shall be retained to act on behalf of these employees until such time as the employees shall, pursuant to law, elect to change such agents.

    11. (New section) In the event that the outstanding indebtedness of the authorities is not retired collectively but the issuing officials shall elect to retire the outstanding bonded indebtedness of each of the authorities independently, the relevant provisions of this act shall also apply independently to each authority as the case may be.

    12. (New section) No later than 360 days following the date on which all bonds issued pursuant to P.L. , c. (now before the Legislature as Assembly Bill No. of 1996) are discharged, all tolls collected from toll roads formerly operated by the authorities shall be eliminated, and the removal of all toll booths and barriers on those roads shall be commenced.

    13. Section 20 of P.L.1984, c.73 (C.27:1B-20) is amended to read as follows:

    20. There is hereby established in the General Fund an account entitled "Transportation Trust Fund Account." During the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1984 and during each succeeding fiscal year in which the authority has bonds, notes or other obligations outstanding, the treasurer shall credit to this account:

    a. An amount equivalent to the revenue derived from $0.025 per gallon from the tax imposed on the sale of motor fuels pursuant to chapter 39 of Title 54 of the Revised Statutes, as provided in Article VIII, Section II, paragraph 4 of the State Constitution, provided, however, such amount during any fiscal year shall not be less than $100,000,000;

    b. After approval by the voters of the constitutional amendment proposed in Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 2 of 1995 or Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 9 of 1995, in addition to the amount credited in subsection a. of this section, for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1996 and the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1997, an amount equivalent to the revenue derived from $0.045 per gallon from the tax imposed on the sale of motor fuels pursuant to chapter 39 of Title 54 of the Revised Statutes, provided, however, such amount shall not be less than $180,000,000 during each of those fiscal years, and for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1998, an amount equivalent to the revenue derived from $0.055 per gallon from the tax, provided, however, that such amount shall not be less than $220,000,000, and for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1999 and for each fiscal year thereafter, an amount equivalent to the revenue derived from $0.065 per gallon from the tax, provided, however, that such amount shall not be less than $260,000,000 in any fiscal year, as provided in Article VIII, Section II, paragraph 4 of the State Constitution; [and]

    c. An amount equivalent to moneys received by the State in accordance with contracts entered into with toll road authorities or other State agencies, provided that effective with the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1988, the amount so credited shall not be less than $24,500,000.00 in any fiscal year; and

    d. Amounts paid or transferred to this account from the "Toll Road General Reserve Fund" or the "Toll Road Authorities Retirement Bond Debt Service Fund," as provided under P.L. , c. (now before the Legislature as Assembly Bill No. of 1996).

    The treasurer shall also credit to this account, in accordance with a contract between the treasurer and the authority, an amount equivalent to the sum of the revenues due from the increase of fees for motor vehicle registrations collected pursuant to the amendment to R.S.39:3-20 made by this act and from the increase in the tax on diesel fuels imposed pursuant to the amendment to R.S.54:39-27 made by this act and by P.L.1987, c.460, provided that the total amount credited during the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1984 shall not be less than $20,000,000.00 and that the total amount credited during the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1985 and during every fiscal year thereafter shall not be less than $30,000,000.00.

    In addition to the amounts credited to the account by this section, commencing with the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1995 and every fiscal year thereafter, there shall be appropriated from the General Fund such additional amounts as are necessary to carry out the provisions of this act and after January 1, 1997 the fees collected pursuant to subsection a. of section 68 of P.L.1990, c.8 (C.17:33B-63) shall be available for crediting to the account for the purposes of this act.

    No later than the fifth business day of the month following the month in which a credit has been made, the treasurer shall pay to the authority, for its purposes as provided herein, the amounts then credited to the Transportation Trust Fund Account, provided that the payments to the authority shall be subject to and dependent upon appropriations being made from time to time by the Legislature of the amounts thereof for the purposes of the act.

(cf: P.L.1995, c.108, s.5)

    14. This act shall take effect immediately, but shall remain inoperative until approval by the voters of P.L. , c. (now before the Legislature as Assembly Bill No. of 1996).

STATEMENT

    This bill provides for the abolishment of the New Jersey Highway Authority and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and the transferral of their functions, powers and duties to the Department of Transportation, except for bonding and the power to revise tolls. All highway and turnpike projects would become part of the State highway system and would thereafter be maintained by the Department of Transportation. The department would manage the roads as toll roads until one year after all authority debt is dissolved. At that point, tolls would be abolished.

    This bill would become effective upon the approval by the voters of the issuance of State bonds to retire the outstanding bonded indebtedness of the toll road authorities, as proposed in Assembly Bill No. of 1996, the companion bill to this proposed legislation.

Abolishes certain transportation authorities operating toll roads and transfers their functions to Department of Transportation.