Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman AURA K. DUNN
District 25 (Morris and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Establishes Farmland Assessment Review Commission to annually review and recommend changes to farmland assessment program, as necessary to ensure fair, equitable, and uniform Statewide application and enforcement of program requirements and allocation of program benefits.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning farmland assessment, supplementing Title 54 of the Revised Statutes, and amending P.L.2013, c.43.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. (New section) a. There is established, in the Department of Agriculture, the Farmland Assessment Review Commission, the purpose of which shall be to regularly review, and to recommend and facilitate the regular and appropriate updating of, the States farmland assessment program, as well as the rules and regulations adopted for the programs purposes, in order to promote and ensure, on a Statewide basis, across all local jurisdictions and regardless of implementing agency, office, or official, the consistent, accurate, reliable, and uniform application and enforcement of, and ongoing site compliance with, existing farmland assessment program requirements, as necessary to ensure the continued fair and equitable Statewide allocation and distribution of program benefits to and among all sites, and only those sites, that continue to satisfy the eligibility requirements therefor, consistent with the requirements of Article VIII, Section I, paragraph 1(b) of the State Constitution, as amended, and the provisions of the Farmland Assessment Act of 1964, P.L.1964, c.48 (C.54:4-23.1 et seq.), as amended and supplemented.
b. The commission shall have the duty to:
(1) evaluate and delineate the reasons why, as of the effective date of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), more than 37,000 properties are subject to farmland assessment in New Jersey; annually identify the current number, size, and location of all properties that are subject to farmland assessment in the State, as well as the total amount of farmland-assessed land, by acreage and percentage of all lands, lying within the jurisdictions of each county and municipality in the State; determine the rate at which the total number of farmland-assessed sites has increased, on a year-over-year basis, and by county and municipality, since the farmland assessment programs inception, and the rate at which such total number of farmland-assessed sites is expected to continue to increase, on a year-over-year basis, and by county and municipality, in future years of program operation; evaluate whether, and the extent to which, it would be feasible and beneficial for the State to impose conditions or restrictions that are designed to limit either the total value of benefits being annually allocated to farmland-assessed properties or the total number of properties annually entitled to receive such benefits, or to limit, by number or size, the types of properties that may be deemed newly eligible for farmland assessment benefits in each upcoming tax year; and, to the extent that the commission deems it feasible and appropriate to impose any such limits on total farmland assessment participation rates or benefits levels, or both, develop recommendations regarding the appropriate conditions or restrictions to be imposed for such purposes;
(2) evaluate whether, and the extent to which, there is a need to establish, or to continue using, a dedicated source of State funding to facilitate the annual undertaking of local on-site inspections at all farmland-assessed sites in the State, as necessary to confirm each sites ongoing eligibility for continued program benefits, and whether, and the extent to which, it would be possible to cover the costs of such local on-site inspections by requiring the owners or operators of farmland-assessed sites to annually pay a mandatory inspection fee to be dedicated and used for such purposes; and, to the extent that such fee-based inspection system is deemed to be feasible and appropriate, develop recommendations designed to facilitate the establishment and the effective and efficient operation of such system in New Jersey, including, but not limited to, recommendations as to whether such system would be most effectively operated and administered by the State government, by local governments, or by both the State and local governments acting in coordination, recommendations regarding the minimum and maximum fee amounts to be imposed on farmland-assessed sites to ensure and facilitate the annual collection and dedication of funding sufficient to cover the requisite costs of all such on-site inspections, and recommendations as to whether, and the extent to which, the fee requirements imposed on site owners or operators, for the purposes of such fee-based funding system, should vary by municipality, or based on site size, site-related income, or other site-related factors, as necessary to ensure ongoing fairness and equitability in association with the Statewide implementation of such fee-based funding system;
(3) evaluate whether, and the extent to which, the continuance, from one tax year to the next, of tax benefits previously allocated to a farmland-assessed site, as authorized pursuant to section 15 of P.L.1964, c.48 (C.54:4-23.15) and section 1 of P.L.1971, c.400 (C.54:4-23.15a), is currently conditioned or is otherwise dependent upon the site owner or operators submission of site-related farm product sales data, and whether, and the extent to which, farmland assessment benefits authorized to be continued in an upcoming tax year may differ, in level or amount, from the benefits previously allocated to a farmland-assessed site, based on, and commensurate with, the sites most recently reported farm product sales data; and, to the extent the commission deems it to be appropriate and necessary, develop recommendations for actions that could be undertaken, or for new or revised laws, rules, regulations, procedures, protocols, and standards that could be implemented, by the Governor, by the Legislature, by the Department of Agriculture or the State Board of Agriculture, by local government units or local tax assessors, or by other relevant actors or entities, to facilitate and ensure greater levels of fairness and equitability in association with the year-to-year continuance of previously authorized farmland assessment benefits in the State, including, but not limited to, recommendations regarding the need for, and the feasibility and benefits of adopting, new or revised Statewide procedures that would expressly condition the continuance of benefits upon continued site eligibility therefor, and that would further require the amount of any such continued benefits to reflect, and to be commensurate with, each such eligible sites most recently reported farm product sales data;
(4) evaluate whet