Bill Text: NJ A4331 | 2010-2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Prohibits imposition of sewerage service connection fee by regional sewerage authorities and public utilities upon certain municipalities and boards of education.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-11-21 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee [A4331 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2010-A4331-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman L. GRACE SPENCER
District 29 (Essex and Union)
SYNOPSIS
Prohibits imposition of sewerage service connection fee by regional sewerage authorities and public utilities upon certain municipalities and boards of education.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning sewerage connection fees for certain municipalities and boards of education, amending and supplementing P.L.1946, c.138 and supplementing chapter 13 of Title 48 of the Revised Statues.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 3 of P.L.1946, c.138 (C.40:14A-3) is amended to read as follows:
3. As used in this act, unless a different meaning clearly appears from the context:
(1) "Municipality" shall mean any city of any class, any borough, village, town, township, or any other municipality other than a county or a school district, and except when used in section 4 or 21 of this act, any agency thereof or any two or more thereof acting jointly or any joint meeting or other agency of any two or more thereof;
(2) "County" shall mean any county of any class;
(3) "Governing body" shall mean, in the case of a county, the board of chosen freeholders, or in the case of those counties organized pursuant to the provisions of the "Optional County Charter Law," P.L.1972, c.154 (C.40:41A-1 et seq.), the board of chosen freeholders and the county executive, the county supervisor or the county manager, as appropriate, and, in the case of a municipality, the commission, council, board or body, by whatever name it may be known, having charge of the finances of the municipality;
(4) "Person" shall mean any person, association, corporation, nation, State or any agency or subdivision thereof, other than a county or municipality of the State or a sewerage authority;
(5) "Sewerage or water reclamation authority" shall mean a public body created pursuant to section 4 of this act;
(6) Subject to the exceptions provided in section 4 of this act, "district" shall mean the area within the territorial boundaries of the county, or of the municipality or municipalities, which created or joined in the creation of a sewerage authority;
(7) "Local unit" shall mean the county, or any municipality, which created or joined in the creation of a sewerage authority;
(8) "Sewerage system" shall mean the plants, structures, on-site waste-water systems, and other real and personal property acquired, constructed, maintained or operated or to be acquired, constructed, maintained or operated by a sewerage authority for the purposes of the sewerage authority, including sewers, conduits, pipe lines, mains, pumping and ventilating stations, sewage treatment or disposal systems, plants and works, connections, and outfalls, compensating reservoirs, and other plants, structures, boats, conveyances, and other real and personal property, and rights therein, and appurtenances necessary or useful and convenient for the collection, treatment, purification or disposal in a sanitary manner of any sewage, liquid or solid wastes, night soil or industrial wastes;
(9) "Cost" shall mean, in addition to the usual connotations thereof, the cost of acquisition or construction of all or any part of a sewerage system and of all or any property, rights, easements, privileges, agreements and franchises deemed by the sewerage authority to be necessary or useful and convenient therefor or in connection therewith and the cost of retiring the present value of the unfunded accrued liability due and owing by a sewerage authority, as calculated by the system actuary for a date certain upon the request of a sewerage authority, for early retirement incentive benefits granted by the sewerage authority pursuant to P.L.1991, c.230 and P.L.1993, c.181, including interest or discount on bonds, cost of issuance of bonds, engineering and inspection costs and legal expenses, costs of financial, professional and other estimates and advice, organization, administrative, operating and other expenses of the sewerage authority prior to and during such acquisition or construction, and all such other expenses as may be necessary or incident to the financing, acquisition, construction and completion of said sewerage system or part thereof and the placing of the same in operation, and also such provision or reserves for working capital, operating, maintenance or replacement expenses or for payment or security of principal of or interest on bonds during or after such acquisition or construction as the sewerage authority may determine, and also reimbursements to the sewerage authority or any county, municipality or other person of any moneys theretofore expended for the purposes of the sewerage authority or to any county or municipality of any moneys theretofore expended for in connection with sanitation facilities;
(10) "Real property" shall mean lands both within and without the State, and improvements thereof or thereon, or any rights or interests therein;
(11) "Construct" and "construction" shall connote and include acts of construction, reconstruction, replacement, extension, improvement and betterment of a sewerage system;
(12) "Industrial wastes" shall mean liquid or other wastes resulting from any processes of industry, manufacture, trade or business or from the development of any natural resource;
(13) "Sewage" shall mean the water-carried wastes created in and carried, or to be carried, away from, or to be processed by on-site wastewater systems, residences, hotels, apartments, schools, hospitals, industrial establishments, or any other public or private building, together with such surface or ground water and industrial wastes as may be present;
(14) "On-site wastewater system" means any of several works, facilities, septic tanks or other devices, used to collect, treat, reclaim, or dispose of wastewater or sewage on or adjacent to the property on which the wastewater or sewage is produced, or to convey such wastewater or sewage from said property to such facilities as the authority may establish for its disposal;
(15) "Pollution" means the condition of water resulting from the introduction therein of substances of a kind and in quantities rendering it detrimental or immediately or potentially dangerous to the public health, or unfit for public or commercial use;
(16) "Ordinance" means a written act of the governing body of a municipality adopted and otherwise approved and published in the manner or mode of procedure prescribed for ordinances tending to obligate such municipality pecuniarily;
(17) "Resolution" means a written act of the governing body of a local unit adopted and otherwise approved in the manner or mode of procedure prescribed for resolutions tending to obligate such local unit pecuniarily;
(18) "Bonds" shall mean bonds or other obligations issued pursuant to this act; [and]
(19) "Compensating reservoir" shall mean the structures, facilities and appurtenances for the impounding, transportation and release of water for the replenishment in periods of drought or at other necessary times of all or a part of waters in or bordering the State diverted into a sewer, sewage treatment or sewage disposal system operated by the sewerage authority; and
(20) "Board of education" shall mean the board of education of any local school district, consolidated school district, regional school district, county vocational school district, county special services school district, and any other board of education or other similar body other than the State Board of Education, the Commission on Higher Education or the New Jersey Presidents' Council, established and operating under the provisions of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes and having authority to make purchases and to enter into contracts for the provision or performance of goods or services. "Board of education" shall also include the board of trustees of a charter school established under P.L.1995, c.426 (C.18A:36A-1 et seq.).
(cf: P.L 2002, c.42, s.4)
2. Section 8 of P.L.1946, c.138 (C.40:14A-8) is amended to read as follows:
8. (a) Every sewerage authority is hereby authorized to charge and collect rents, rates, fees or other charges (in this act sometimes referred to as "service charges") for direct or indirect connection with, or the use or services of, the sewerage system. Such service charges may be charged to and collected from any person contracting for such connection or use or services or from the owner or occupant, or both of them, of any real property which directly or indirectly is or has been connected with the system or from or on which originates or has originated sewage or other wastes which directly or indirectly have entered or may enter the sewerage system, and the owner of any such real property shall be liable for and shall pay such service charges to the sewerage authority at the time when and the place where such service charges are due and payable.
(b) Rents, rates, fees and charges, which may be payable periodically, being in the nature of use or service charges, shall as nearly as the sewerage authority shall deem practicable and equitable be uniform throughout the district for the same type, class and amount of use or service of the sewerage system, except as permitted by section 1 of P.L.1994, c.78 (C.40:14A-8.2), and may be based or computed either on the consumption of water on or in connection with the real property, making due allowance for commercial use of water, or on the number and kind of water outlets on or in connection with the real property, or on the number and kind of plumbing or sewerage fixtures or facilities on or in connection with the real property, or on the number of persons residing or working on or otherwise connected or identified with the real property, or on the capacity of the improvements on or connected with the real property, or on any other factors determining the type, class and amount of use or service of the sewerage system, or on any combination of any such factors, and may give weight to the characteristics of the sewage and other wastes and any other special matter affecting the cost of treatment and disposal thereof, including chlorine demand, biochemical oxygen demand, concentration of solids and chemical composition. In addition to any such periodic service charges, a separate charge in the nature of a connection fee or tapping fee, in respect of each connection of any property with the sewerage system, may be imposed upon the owner or occupant of the property so connected. Such connection charges shall be uniform within each class of users, except as provided by section 2 of P.L.2005, c.29 (C.40:14A-8.30) and except as provided by section 2 of P.L.2005, c.173 (C.40:14A-8.4) and except as provided by section 3 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (now pending before the Legislature as this bill), and the amount thereof shall not exceed the actual cost of the physical connection, if made by the authority, plus an amount computed in the following manner to represent a fair payment toward the cost of the system:
(1) The amount representing all debt service, including but not limited to sinking funds, reserve funds, the principal and interest on bonds, and the amount of any loans and interest thereon, paid by the sewerage authority to defray the capital cost of developing the system as of the end of the immediately preceding fiscal year of the authority shall be added to all capital expenditures made by the authority not funded by a bond ordinance or debt for the development of the system as of the end of the immediately preceding fiscal year of the authority.
(2) Any gifts, contributions or subsidies to the authority received from, and not reimbursed or reimbursable to any federal, State, county or municipal government or agency or any private person, and that portion of amounts paid to the authority by a public entity under a service agreement or service contract which is not repaid to the public entity by the authority, shall then be subtracted.
(3) The remainder shall be divided by the total number of service units served by the authority at the end of the immediately preceding fiscal year of the authority, and the results shall then be apportioned to each new connector according to the number of service units attributed to that connector, to produce the connector's contribution to the cost of the system. In attributing service units to each connector, the estimated average daily flow of sewage for the connector shall be divided by the average daily flow of sewage for the average single family residence in the authority's district to produce the number of service units to be attributed.
The connection fee shall be recomputed at the end of each fiscal year of the authority, after a public hearing is held in the manner prescribed in subsection (c) of this section. The revised connection fee may be imposed upon those who subsequently connect in that fiscal year to the system. The combination of such connection fee or tapping fee and the aforesaid periodic service charges shall meet the requirements of subsection (c) hereof.
(c) The sewerage authority shall prescribe and from time to time when necessary revise a schedule of service charges, which shall comply with the terms of any contract of the sewerage authority and in any event shall be such that the revenues of the sewerage authority will at all times be adequate to pay all expenses of operation and maintenance of the sewerage system, including reserves, insurance, extensions, and replacements, and to pay punctually the principal of and interest on any bonds and to maintain such reserves or sinking funds therefor as may be required by the terms of any contract of the sewerage authority or as may be deemed necessary or desirable by the sewerage authority. Said schedule shall thus be prescribed and from time to time revised by the sewerage authority after public hearing thereon which shall be held by the sewerage authority at least 20 days after notice of the proposed adjustment is mailed to the clerk of each municipality serviced by the authority and publication of notice of the proposed adjustment of the service charges and of the time and place of the public hearing in at least two newspapers of general circulation in the area serviced by the authority. The sewerage authority shall provide evidence at the hearing showing that the proposed adjustment of the service charges is necessary and reasonable, and shall provide the opportunity for cross-examination of persons offering such evidence, and a transcript of the hearing shall be made and a copy thereof shall be available upon request to any interested party at a reasonable fee. The sewerage authority shall likewise fix and determine the time or times when and the place or places where such service charges shall be due and payable and may require that such service charges shall be paid in advance for periods of not more than one year. A copy of such schedule of service charges in effect shall at all times be kept on file at the principal office of the sewerage authority and shall at all reasonable times be open to public inspection.
(d) Any county sewerage authority may establish sewerage regions in portions of the district. Rents, rates, fees and charges which may be payable periodically, being in the nature of use or service charges, shall as nearly as the sewerage authority shall deem practicable and equitable, be uniform throughout the district for the same type, class and amount of use or service of the sewerage systems, except as permitted by section 1 of P.L.1994, c.78 (C.40:14A-8.2), and shall meet all other requirements of subsection (b) hereof.
(cf: P.L.2005, c.173, s.1)
3. (New section) Notwithstanding any rates or schedules assessed pursuant to section 8 of P.L.1946, c.138 (C.40:14A-8), no regional sewerage authority, created pursuant to subsection (c) of section 4 of P.L.1946, c.138 (C.40:14A-4), shall charge a connection fee or tapping fee for new connections of real property to the sewerage system, when such real property is:
a. owned by a municipality or under the charge and control of a board of education; and
b. located within a municipality in which all other real property is connected to, or is capable of being connected to, that sewerage system.
The provisions of this section, however, shall not be construed to affect or impair the bond covenants of an authority or any contract between an authority and a municipality or a board of education entered into prior to the effective date of this section.
4. (New section) a. Notwithstanding any law, rule, order, or regulation to the contrary, the Board of Public Utilities shall prohibit a public utility which is or shall be engaged in supplying sewerage service, from charging any connection fee or tapping fee for new connections of real property to the sewerage system, when such real property is:
(1) owned by a municipality or under the charge and control of a board of education; and
(2) located within a municipality in which all other real property is connected to, or is capable of being connected to, that sewerage system.
The provisions of this section, however, shall not be construed to affect or impair any contract between such public utility and a municipality or a board of education entered into prior to the effective date of this section.
b. As used in this section, "board of education" shall mean and include the board of education of any local school district, consolidated school district, regional school district, county vocational school district, county special services school district, and any other board of education or other similar body other than the State Board of Education, the Commission on Higher Education or the New Jersey Presidents' Council, established and operating under the provisions of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes and having authority to make purchases and to enter into contracts for the provision or performance of goods or services. "Board of education" also shall include the board of trustees of a charter school established under P.L.1995, c.426 (C.18A:36A-1 et seq.); and "municipality" shall mean any city of any class, any borough, village, town, township, or any other municipality other than a county or a school district, and any agency thereof or any two or more thereof acting jointly or any joint meeting or other agency of any two or more thereof.
5. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill prohibits regional sewerage authorities created pursuant to subsection (c) of section 4 of the "sewerage authorities law," P.L.1946, c.138 (C.40:14A-4), and public utilities under the Board of Public Utilities' jurisdiction, from charging a connection or tapping fee for new connections of real property to the sewerage system, when such real property is (1) owned by a municipality or under the charge and control of a local board of education or the board of trustees of a charter school established under P.L.1995, c.426 (C.18A:36A-1 et seq.), and (2) located within a municipality in which all other real property is connected to, or capable of being connected to, that sewerage system, as appropriate.
