5:10A-83 Findings, declarations relative to the "New Jersey Meadowlands Tax Relief Act."

83. The Legislature finds and declares that:

a. The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission is the zoning and planning agency for a 30.4-square-mile area along the Hackensack River known as the Hackensack Meadowlands, covering parts of 14 municipalities in Bergen and Hudson Counties in New Jersey. The Meadowlands Regional Commission will oversee the development, and redevelopment, of the Hackensack Meadowlands in an orderly and comprehensive fashion, with special consideration to the ecological factors constituting the environment of the Hackensack Meadowlands.

b. A vital component of the comprehensive plan for the development of the Hackensack Meadowlands was an intermunicipal tax-sharing program. The intermunicipal tax sharing program was established to create a fair and equitable method of distributing the benefits and costs of economic development and land use decisions made by the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission among the 14 municipalities located in the Meadowlands District. Under this program, as originally conceived, the municipalities with fewer development restrictions are required to deposit a share of their tax ratables into a special intermunicipal account administered by the commission. Money in this account is annually distributed to the municipalities with greater development restrictions to make up for their loss of tax ratable growth opportunity.

c. The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, the predecessor to the Meadowlands Regional Commission, has been successful in providing orderly and comprehensive development, solid waste management, and environmental protection in the Hackensack Meadowlands District, as well as providing for the investment of many millions of dollars in development, municipal services, and significant infrastructure projects, among other things.

d. It is fitting and proper to establish new sources of funding to replace the intermunicipal tax sharing program in order to facilitate the future of the Hackensack Meadowlands District as a vibrant area of economic growth in the State of New Jersey, as well as a tourism destination and an area of continued environmental significance and improvement. The new sources of funding should recognize the concerns of the district's seven municipalities that must contribute significant amounts of property tax dollars to the intermunicipal tax sharing program. These municipalities have been especially challenged to provide services to municipal residents and contribute to the intermunicipal tax sharing program, while operating under the significant restrictions of the 2% property tax levy cap. In effect, the cost of the State policy to preserve the Hackensack Meadowlands has been borne by the property taxpayers of the seven municipalities required to deposit tax revenue into the intermunicipal account.

e. It is also appropriate and necessary to recognize the consistent impact on the Hackensack Meadowlands District of tourist-related activities and attractions, including sports and entertainment activities and construction at the properties located in the heart of the district, and to require that patrons of those tourist-related activities and attractions shall contribute to the financial needs of the municipalities that comprise the Meadowlands district in order to reduce the property tax burden on their residents.

L.2015, c.19, s.83; amended 2015, c.72, s.26.