SENATE, No. 1634

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

INTRODUCED OCTOBER 28, 1996

 

 

By Senator MacINNES

 

 

An Act concerning the payment for certain construction permit fees and amending P.L.1985, c.409 and repealing P.L.1948, c.413.

 

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

 

    1. Section 1 of P.L.1985, c.409 (C.52:27D-126c) is amended to read as follows:

    1. [No county, municipality, or any agency or instrumentality thereof shall be required to pay any municipal fee or charge in order to secure a construction permit for the erection or alteration of any public building or part thereof from the municipality wherein the building may be located.] No erection or alteration of any public building or part thereof by a county, municipality, school board, or any agency or instrumentality thereof shall be subject to any fee, including any surcharge or training fee, imposed by any department or agency of State government pursuant to any law, or rule or regulation, except that nothing contained in this section shall be interpreted as preventing the imposition of a fee upon a board of education by either the Department of Education for plan review or by a municipality for the review of plans submitted to it pursuant to the provisions of section 12 of P.L.1975, c.217 (C.52:27D-130).

(cf: P.L.1990, c.23, s.4)

 

    2. P.L.1948, c.413 (C.40:23-6.20) is hereby repealed.

  

    3. This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

    This bill removes the exemption of counties, municipalities and their agencies and instrumentalities from the payment of municipal fees or charges for construction permits for the erection or alteration of public building. The bill also repeals P.L.1948, c.413 (C.40:23-6.20), which provides that no county having a population in excess of 400,000 inhabitants (other than a county of the first class), or the board of chosen freeholders or any of its contractors, shall be required to pay any municipal fee or charge for a construction permit for the erection or alteration of a public building to the municipality in which the building is to be located.

    This statutory exemption from the payment of construction permit fees has placed a financial burden on municipalities in which county-owned buildings are being constructed, because these municipalities must absorb the costs of plan review and inspection of the construction without being able to be reimbursed by the county for the expenses incurred during the inspection process, especially if a private inspection agency is used by the municipality and charges fixed rates for its services. In such a case, the municipality would have to pay a cost that could not be reimbursed to it by the county, thus placing an undue burden on municipal taxpayers.

    The effect of this bill will, in the case of a county construction project, spread the cost of the project to all county taxpayers, and not simply the taxpayers of the municipality in which the project is located.

 

 

                             

 

Removes prohibition on payment for construction permits by counties and municipalities.