SENATE, No. 427

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

INTRODUCED JANUARY 18, 1996

 

 

By Senator HAINES

 

 

An Act concerning certain 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 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, provided that such public utility qualifies under the “Municipal Qualified Bond Act,” P.L.1976, c.38 (C.40A:3-1 et seq.), or the public utility shall have appropriated such sums for the purpose of paying operating and maintenance costs in its annual budget submitted to and approved by the Director of the Division of Local Government Services in the Department of Community Affairs.

(cf: P.L. 1991, c.196, s.1)


    2. This act shall take effect immediately .

 

 

STATEMENT

 

    This bill permits the use of surplus that was generated in prior years and utilized in the current budget to be used in determining whether a public utility is a self-liquidating purpose. Under current law only a municipal public utility may use surplus to qualify as a self-liquidating purpose.

 

 

                             

 

Permits use of surplus by public utilities to be deemed a self-liquidating purpose.