Bill Text: NJ A963 | 2014-2015 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires State to reimburse municipalities for portion of foregone property tax revenue resulting from veterans' property tax exemption.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-01-16 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee [A963 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2014-A963-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
216th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2014 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman TROY SINGLETON
District 7 (Burlington)
Assemblywoman CLEOPATRA G. TUCKER
District 28 (Essex)
Assemblyman BOB ANDRZEJCZAK
District 1 (Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland)
Assemblyman RALPH R. CAPUTO
District 28 (Essex)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman Lampitt
SYNOPSIS
Requires State to reimburse municipalities for portion of foregone property tax revenue resulting from veterans' property tax exemption.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act concerning the veterans' property tax exemption and amending P.L.1948, c.259.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 1 of P.L.1948, c.259 (C.54:4-3.30) is amended to read as follows:
1. a. The dwelling house and the lot or curtilage whereon the same is erected, of any citizen and resident of this State, now or hereafter honorably discharged or released under honorable circumstances, from active service, in time of war, in any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States, who has been or shall be declared by the United States Veterans Administration or its successor to have a service-connected disability from paraplegia, sarcoidosis, osteochondritis resulting in permanent loss of the use of both legs, or permanent paralysis of both legs and lower parts of the body, or from hemiplegia and has permanent paralysis of one leg and one arm or either side of the body, resulting from injury to the spinal cord, skeletal structure, or brain or from disease of the spinal cord not resulting from any form of syphilis; or from total blindness; or from amputation of both arms or both legs, or both hands or both feet, or the combination of a hand and a foot; or from other service-connected disability declared by the United States Veterans Administration or its successor to be a total or 100% permanent disability, and not so evaluated solely because of hospitalization or surgery and recuperation, sustained through enemy action, or accident, or resulting from disease contracted while in such active service, shall be exempt from taxation, on proper claim made therefor, and such exemption shall be in addition to any other exemption of such person's real and personal property which now is or hereafter shall be prescribed or allowed by the Constitution or by law but no taxpayer shall be allowed more than one exemption under this act.
b. (1) The surviving spouse of any such citizen and resident of this State, who at the time of death was entitled to the exemption provided under this act, shall be entitled, on proper claim made therefor, to the same exemption as the deceased had, during the surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while a resident of this State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the legal owner thereof and actually occupies the said dwelling house or any other dwelling house thereafter acquired.
(2) The surviving spouse of any citizen and resident of this State who was honorably discharged and, after the citizen and resident's death, is declared to have suffered a service-connected disability as provided in subsection a. of this section, shall be entitled, on proper claim made therefor, to the same exemption the deceased would have become eligible for. The exemption shall continue during the surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while a resident of this State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the legal owner thereof and actually occupies the dwelling house or any other dwelling house thereafter acquired.
c. The surviving spouse of any citizen and resident of this State, who died in active service in time of war in any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States, shall be entitled, on proper claim made therefor, to an exemption from taxation on the dwelling house and lot or curtilage whereon the same is erected, during the surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while a resident of this State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the legal owner thereof and actually occupies the said dwelling or any other dwelling house thereafter acquired.
d. The surviving spouse of any citizen and resident of this State who died prior to January 10, 1972, that being the effective date of P.L.1971, c.398, and whose circumstances were such that, had said law become effective during the deceased's lifetime, the deceased would have become eligible for the exemption granted under this section as amended by said law, shall be entitled, on proper claim made therefor, to the same exemption as the deceased would have become eligible for upon the dwelling house and lot or curtilage occupied by the deceased at the time of death, during the surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while a resident of this State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the legal owner thereof and actually occupies the said dwelling house on the premises to be exempted.
e. Nothing in this act shall be intended to include paraplegia or hemiplegia resulting from locomotor ataxia or other forms of syphilis of the central nervous system, or from chronic alcoholism, or to include other forms of disease resulting from the veteran's own misconduct which may produce signs and symptoms similar to those resulting from paraplegia, osteochondritis, or hemiplegia.
f. The State annually shall reimburse each taxing district for 25 percent of the total amount of the property tax revenue foregone due to the property tax exemption authorized in this section, provided that in no State fiscal year shall the total reimbursement amount paid to all of the applicable taxing districts exceed $15,000,000. If the total reimbursement amounts claimed by the taxing districts in any State fiscal year exceed $15,000,000, the reimbursements paid to those taxing districts shall be reduced proportionately.
(cf: P.L.2007, c.317, s.1)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would amend N.J.S.A.54:4-3.30, which authorizes the veterans' property tax exemption, to require the State to reimburse municipalities for 25 percent of the property tax revenue that would have been paid by those veteran property owners, and their surviving spouses, if their property had not been property tax exempt under that statute. The bill requires that the total reimbursement amount paid to all of the applicable taxing districts shall not exceed $15,000,000 in any State fiscal year. If the total reimbursement amounts claimed by the taxing districts in any State fiscal year exceed $15,000,000, the reimbursements to those taxing districts would be reduced proportionately. Under current law, the State does not reimburse municipalities for this "lost" property tax revenue.
In 2012, Statewide, 8,157 permanently and totally disabled veterans, or their surviving spouses, were exempt from the payment of $53,864,863.57 in property taxes under N.J.S.A.54:4-3.30. The amount of property tax revenue foregone by municipalities every year is significant, and since the State does not currently reimburse municipalities for the property tax revenue that is not collected because these veterans, or their surviving spouses, are exempted from the payment of property taxes under current law, the rest of the property taxpayers in these municipalities essentially paid a share of those foregone property taxes.
It is the intent of the sponsor that, going forward, municipalities will receive a portion of the unpaid property taxes from the State so that other property taxpayers in those municipalities will not have to shoulder the entire share of those foregone property taxes.
