40A:2-7. Exceptions to debt limitation

A bond ordinance may be finally adopted notwithstanding section 40A:2-6 if such ordinance authorizes obligations solely for one of the following:

a. to meet an expenditure which is the result of fire, flood or other disaster and if the local government board shall have determined that the expenditure is of such character, and shall have caused such determination to have been endorsed on a certified copy of the bond ordinance as passed on first reading; or

b. to fund, renew, extend or retire notes issued or authorized pursuant to this chapter or any act of which this chapter is a revision; or

c. purposes permitted by this chapter if (1) it has been found by order of the State Department of Health, which is hereby authorized to make such order in a proper case, that the expenditure and every part thereof is necessary to protect the public health and to prevent or suppress a present menace to the public health of sufficient gravity to justify the incurrence of debt in excess of statutory limitations, and that no less expensive method of preventing or suppressing such menace exists; and (2) the principal amount of such obligations is not in excess of the amount determined by the local government board to be necessary therefor and the local government board shall have caused such determination to be endorsed on a certified copy of the bond ordinance as passed on first reading; or

d. purposes permitted by this chapter, if the local government board shall have caused its consent to be endorsed upon a certified copy of the bond ordinance as passed upon first reading, which consent said local government board shall cause to be so endorsed thereon, if it shall be satisfied and shall have determined that each of the purposes or improvements for which such obligations are authorized are in the public interest and are for the health, welfare, convenience or betterment of the inhabitants of such local unit, and that the amounts to be expended for each of the purposes or improvements to be financed pursuant to such bond ordinance are not unreasonable or exorbitant and that the issuance of such obligations will not materially impair the credit of such local unit or substantially reduce its ability to pay punctually the principal of and interest on its debts and to supply other essential public improvements and services; or

e. purposes permitted by this chapter when the expenditure is to be made for constructing or reconstructing dikes, bulkheads, jetties or similar devices to prevent the encroachment of the sea, and if the local government board shall have determined that an emergency exists or is threatened which makes necessary the construction or reconstruction of such dikes, bulkheads, jetties or other devices for the preservation of life or property;

f. purposes permitted by this chapter if the amount of such obligations does not exceed in the aggregate (1) the amount available, if any, for the issuance of obligations by the local unit upon the effective date of this chapter pursuant to section 40:1-16(d) of the Revised Statutes, less (2) the amount of other obligations authorized prior to the adoption of such bond ordinance pursuant to paragraphs d, f and g of this section; or

g. purposes permitted by this chapter if the amount of such obligations and all other obligations authorized pursuant to this subsection during the current fiscal year does not exceed an amount equal to 2/3 of the amount of obligations (exclusive of utility and assessment obligations) for the payment of which an appropriation was made in the budget of the local unit for the current fiscal year, plus 2/3 of the amount raised in the tax levy of the current fiscal year by the local unit for the payment of bonds or notes of any school district;

h. purposes which are self-liquidating, if such obligations are deductible from gross debt.

L.1960, c. 1969, s. 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1962. Amended by L.1964, c. 72, s. 3.