COMMITTEE ON TAXATION AND FINANCE
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

STATE OF NEW JERSEY CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1947
COMMITTEE ON TAXATION AND FINANCE
Tuesday, July 1, 1947
(Morning session)
CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICKTax Exempt PropertyBreakdown of Rutgers’ Exempt Property for 1945:

tutionality of any act passed by the legislature for the purpose of making effective the cooperation of the state with the federal government under any legislation which Congress has the power to enact.’

In my opinion, the revised Constitution should include the permissive clause referred to above, thus serving to improve intergovernment relations of the future for the benefit of all our taxpayers.

Section 1101 of this ‘Model State Constitution’ is also recommended for your consideration, ‘The legislature shall provide by law for the establishment of such agencies as may be necessary and desirable to promote cooperation on the part of this state with the other states of the Union. The legislature may appropriate such sums as may be necessary to finance its fair share of the cost of any interstate activities.’

New Forms of Taxation: One matter in which the New Jersey State Taxpayers Association is particularly concerned, and which the Executive Committee requests be included in the revised Constitution, is the proposal that ‘a two-thirds vote of the Assembly and Senate be required before any new forms of taxation can be adopted by action of the State Legislature.’

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ Harry W. Wolkstein,&nbspCertified Public Accountant&nbsp(New York and New Jersey)

Appearing as a representative of the New Jersey&nbspTaxpayers Association and the Building Contractors’&nbspAssociation of New Jersey”

CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Wolkstein.

If there are no questions, I now recognize Mr. James J. Smith, Executive Secretary of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities.

MR. JAMES J. SMITH: I would like to read the following statement into the record (reading):

“June 30, 1947

To William T. Read, Esq., Chairman,&nbspand Members of the Committee on Taxation and&nbspFinance of the Constitutional Convention of New Jersey

The New Jersey State League of Municipalities has given careful consideration to the question as to what, if any, changes should be made in the existing tax clause of the New Jersey Constitution, Article IV, Section VII, paragraph 12. That provision now reads as follows:

‘Property shall be assessed for taxes under general laws, and by uniform rules, according to its true value.’

In considering this question we have had in mind not only the language of this clause, but the most recent and authoritative court decisions construing it. We find the following objectionable features in the existing tax provision as now construed:

• 1. It permits of unlimited exemption of any class of property selected by the Legislature. Schwartz v Essex County Board of Taxation, 129 N.J.L. 129, affirmed 130 N.J.L. 17 (1943);
• 2. It permits the segregation by the Legislature of any category of real property and the taxation thereof at any rate selected by the Legislature, no matter how low and without regard to the burden of taxation imposed upon real estate taxpayers not so favored. Jersey City v State Board of Tax Appeals, 133 N.J.L. 202 (1945), affirmed 134 N.J.L. 240.

First, with respect to exemptions: The League is of the opinion that a major cause for the heavy and oppressive burden which now falls upon real estate generally is the series of exemption statutes secured by the efforts of special groups over the years. Each of these exemptions has

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