SENATE, No. 680

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

INTRODUCED FEBRUARY 5, 1996

 

 

By Senator LaROSSA

 

 

An Act concerning the funding of the public schools and supplementing chapter 22 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.

 

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

 

    1. Notwithstanding the provisions of chapter 22 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes and chapter 4 of Title 54 of the Revised Statutes or any other law, rule or regulation to the contrary, the amount of property taxes assessed, levied and collected in order to fund the schools shall not exceed the amount of property taxes assessed, levied and collected to fund the schools for the 1995-96 school year.

 

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

    This bill provides that the amount of property taxes assessed, levied and collected in order to fund the schools shall not exceed the amount of property taxes assessed, levied and collected to fund the schools for the 1995-96 school year.

    Over the past 21 years, the State Supreme Court has declared three school funding statutes unconstitutional, including the current Quality Education Act (QEA). For the past two years, the schools have been funded by temporary measures which have essentially frozen State aid. Today the State seems no closer to a funding formula which can provide both an equitable source of revenue and an equitable distribution of that revenue. It is time now for the Legislature to take action to solve the school funding crisis rather than reacting to the decisions of the Supreme Court.

    This is a companion bill to A-597, which establishes a commission to recommend a new method for the funding of the public schools. It is the purpose of the bills to establish an effective deadline by which the commission will have issued a report, and the Legislature and Governor will have approved legislation to provide a new method for the funding and distribution of school aid. In its finding of July 12, 1994, that the QEA was unconstitutional, the Supreme Court retained jurisdiction and indicated that it may intervene if a new funding statute is not in place by September, 1996.

 

 

                             

 

Freezes the amount of property tax for school funding at the 1995-96 level.