54:4-8.77 Findings, declarations relative to regionalization of certain local government services.

2. The Legislature finds and declares:

a. One of the most effective ways to reduce property taxes is through the regionalization, consolidation or sharing of services by local units and school districts.

b. Due to institutional and financial limitations on these governmental units, regionalized, consolidated and shared alternatives have not been widely adopted, resulting in duplication of services and excess costs levied on property taxpayers.

c. A program of providing State aid to governmental units that successfully implement strategies to regionalize, consolidate and share services will be an innovative and important means of providing a financial incentive to overcome the institutional limitations of local units and school districts.

d. To overcome these institutional limitations and to ensure property tax relief, the State should provide State aid in the form of a property tax credit of a sum of money related to property taxes as authorized by Article VIII, Section I, paragraph 5 of the Constitution directly to the taxpayer, while the governmental unit realizes the budgetary savings from shared, regionalized or consolidated services and passes these additional savings through to taxpayers through a reduction in property tax obligations.

e. Further, combining State-funded property tax relief with fiscal assistance for the planning and start-up costs associated with new shared, regionalized or consolidated services will provide additional incentives for government units to take advantage of the potential savings.

L.1999,c.61,s.2.