SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

[First Reprint]

SENATE, No. 1262

with Senate committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: SEPTEMBER 19, 1996

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 1262 (1R) with amendments.

      As amended, Senate Bill No. 1262 (1R) establishes a pilot program for economic development in non-growth areas of the Pinelands. The Pinelands Commission will help certain municipalities establish local economic development entities. The commission and these local entities will develop a program to identify economic development opportunities that complement regional requirements for resource protection, and provide assistance and planning to attract such development to the area. The economic development developed pursuant to this bill will have to be compatible with the environmentally sensitive nature of the area. The commission will issue a report to the Governor and the Legislature concerning the program two years following enactment.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS

      The committee amended the bill at the request of Senator Ewing with the approval of the sponsor to require the Pinelands Commission to include within its report a detailed, itemized description of the expenditure of the funds appropriated by this bill.

FISCAL IMPACT

       The bill appropriates $250,000 from the General Fund to the Pinelands Commission for the costs of this pilot program.