SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
SENATE, No. 1952
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: MAY 8, 1997
The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 1952 of 1997.
Senate Bill No. 1952 appropriates $750,000 from the "Green Acres, Clean Water, Farmland and Historic Preservation Bond Act of 1992," P.L.1992, c.88, to the State Agriculture Development Committee (SADC) for grants to qualifying farmland owners for up to 50% of the cost of soil and water conservation projects. The bill also appropriates $5 million from the "Green Acres, Farmland and Historic Preservation, and Blue Acres Bond Act of 1995," P.L.1995, c.204, to the SADC for the acquisition of fee simple titles to farmland that after acquisition will be offered for resale with agricultural deed restrictions. The SADC would decide which projects to fund with the appropriated monies.
These two bonds acts do not require the bill that appropriates the moneys set aside for acquisition of fee simple absolute titles to farmland and for soil and water conservation projects to identify the particular projects to be funded.
As reported, this bill is identical to Assembly Bill No. 2461 of 1996 (Bark/Gibson).
FISCAL IMPACT:
The bill appropriates $750,000 from the "Green Acres, Clean Water, Farmland and Historic Preservation Bond Act of 1992," to the SADC for grants to qualifying farmland owners for up to 50% of the cost of soil and water conservation projects and $5 million from the "Green Acres, Farmland and Historic Preservation, and Blue Acres Bond Act of 1995," to the SADC for the purchase of titles to farmland for resale with agricultural deed restrictions.
This appropriation from the "1995 Farmland Preservation Fund" of $5 million appropriates all the moneys set aside by the 1995 bond act for fee simple acquisitions. The appropriation from the "1992 Farmland Preservation Fund" of $750,000 appropriates the remaining one-half of the $1.5 million set aside by the bond act for soil and water conservation projects.