SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

 

STATEMENT TO

 

SENATE, No. 1023

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

DATED: JUNE 13, 1996

 

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No.1023.

      Senate Bill No.1023 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.

      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 incurred in implementing the "Agriculture Retention and Development Act," P.L.1983, c.32 (C.4:1C-11 et seq.). That act concerns 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.

      As reported, this bill is identical to Assembly Bill No.1776 of 1996 (Blee/Cottrell).

 

FISCAL IMPACT:

      This bill reappropriates $376,000 from the Open Space Preservation Bond Act of 1989 for projects listed in the bill and $2 million from the Green Acres Bond Act of 1992 for administrative costs incurred in implementing the "Agriculture Retention and Development Act."