SENATE, No. 372

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

By Senators MacINNES and LITTELL

An Act concerning the use of fee revenues by county tax boards and amending P.L.1979, c.499.

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

    1. Section 18 of P.L.1979, c.499 (C.54:3-21.3a) is amended to read as follows:

    18. All revenues received by the county from fees, either established or increased pursuant to [this amendatory and supplementary act] P.L.1979, c.499, shall be used exclusively for the purposes of modernizing the record-retention capabilities of the county board of taxation, for defraying the costs incurred by the county board of taxation in recording and transcribing appeal proceedings, setting forth memorandums of judgment and in providing copies thereof, and for paying any salary required to be paid by the county which is increased pursuant to [this amendatory and supplementary act] P.L.1979, c.499.

    Fee revenues may be used to cover the costs of authorized official travel and expenses incident thereto on the part of county tax board members and the county tax administrator; however, no member or administrator may incur more than $3,500 in travel and incidental expenses in any one tax year and notwithstanding the individual expenditure limitation, no county tax board shall exceed a total of $12,000 of travel and incidental expenses in any one tax year.

(cf: P.L.1979, c.499, s.18)

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    This bill would place a cap on the amount of travel and incidental expenditures county tax board members and administrators may incur in any one year.

    The Attorney General has recently found that county tax board members and administrators may use fee revenues for work-related travel. Section 18 of P.L.1979, c.499 (C.54:3-21.3a) sets forth the parameters governing the use of those fee revenues, which includes, among other items, the modernization of the record-retention capabilities of the county board of taxation and the defraying of costs incurred by the county tax board in recording and transcribing appeal proceedings.

    In enacting P.L.1979, c.499, the Legislature did not consider travel as a primary purpose to which increased tax appeal fee revenues could be devoted. While allowing for the use of those revenues for travel, this bill establishes a cap on the amount any one member or tax board can expend for this purpose.

Establishes cap on work-related travel by county tax board members and administrators.