Senator Jennifer Beck announces her disappointment that her motion to move out of committee S-2687, a bill that would reinstate the regional contribution agreements entered into prior to July 17, 2008, was tabled by a vote in the State Senate yesterday. Beck, Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon and Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande all opposed A-500, which was the bill that originally removed RCAs.
O’Scanlon and Casagrande are the primary sponsors of the identical bill, A-3725, which is currently in front of the Assembly Housing and Local Government Committee.
The bill permits regional contribution agreements that were entered into by municipalities as a way of satisfying their affordable housing obligations to be permitted to proceed. RCA’s were removed as an option last year when both the State Senate and General Assembly passed A-500.
“I know of 72 separate agreements throughout the state,” said Beck, “that were entered into in good faith by municipalities trying to find the most reasonable way of meeting their COAH obligations, many of them urban centers. Between 1988 and 2000, Jersey City gained $6.9 million in funding through RCAs, from 1988 and 1991, Newark earned $12 million and between 1996 and 2005, Trenton earned $24 million for affordable housing. These cities were promised affordable housing funding through the Urban Housing and Assistance Program, as a way of placating them for removing RCAs from the table.”
The Urban Housing and Assistance Program is run through the New Jersey Affordable Housing Trust Fund, into which the 2.5% non-residential development fees are to be deposited. According to A-500, the first $20 million collected annually state wide by the non-residential development fees was to go directly into the Urban Housing and Assistance Program. Since A-500 was signed into law on July 17, 2008, only $1.3 million has been collected through these fees.
“To me,” Beck continued, “this just goes to show that if we really want to deal with affordable housing in New Jersey, the developer’s fee should be rescinded and RCAs should be reinstated.
Cities like Perth Amboy, Trenton, Elizabeth and Paulsboro would have stood to gain millions of dollars for affordable housing had RCAs stayed in place.”
Beck sent letters to every State Senator last week requesting that they support relieving the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee of the bill, thereby moving it to the floor for a vote by the full Senate.
“RCAs are a tool for providing affordable housing that never should have been eliminated – that was foolish policy to begin with,” said O’Scanlon. “It’s a fact that certain municipalities have a more pressing need for affordable housing than others and some municipalities have virtually no room for additional development. RCA’s were a very efficient tool to help municipalities meet what are in many cases onerous additional development mandates under COAH. That’s why the 12th legislative District team opposed the elimination of RCAs when it was proposed.”
“Trying to meet the inflated numbers set by COAH is difficult enough,” said Casagrande, “without the State whittling away at the available avenues municipalities have to meet those obligations. This bill isn’t even going as far as reinstating the right to create new RCAs, but it is allowing municipalities to fulfill contracts already agreed to. It’s a step in the right direction.”
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February 23, 2010
