Meadowlands Reg. Dev. Agency v. StateMeadowlands Reg. Dev. Agency v. State
This case concerns the trial of consolidated causes of action seeking to invalidate the Hackensack Meadowlands Reclamation and Development Act, L. 1968, C. 404, hereinafter “the act,” on constitutional and other grounds. The matters consolidated are:
1. Meadowlands Regional Development Agency, et als. v. State of New Jersey, et als. (Superior Court of New Jersey, Chancery Division — Bergen County, Docket No. C-1620-68)
2. Guy G. Galiardo, et als. v. Hackensack Development Commission, et als. (Superior Court of New Jersey. Chancery Division — Bergen County, Docket No. C-1620-68)
3. In the Matter of the Application of the Meadowland Regional Development Agency, et als., Louis Montenegro and Phillip Mellillo, Jr., et als. and Town of Secaucus, et als. (Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, Docket No. A-771-68, 979-68 and 791-68 (Consol.))
4. Counts 3 and 4, mounting constitutional attacks upon the act, of seven causes of action in lieu of prerogative writs (mandamus seeking to otherwise compel riparian grants filed in the Superior Court, Law Division (two in Hudson County, five in Bergen) consolidated under the caption —
Cheval Bros. v. State of New Jersey, et als. (Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division — Bergen County. Docket No. L-28712-68 P.W.)
The proceeding brought originally in the Appellate Division under
I
L. 1968, C. 404, is a general statute. As will be demonstrated hereinafter this conclusion of law is a necessary incident to the resolution of several issues raised in the proceedings within the original jurisdiction of the trial court. Thus it has been necessary to make findings from proofs submitted, even though these very proofs are to be transmitted to the Appellate Division for independent findings and conclusions related to issues within its original jurisdiction, i.e., is the act special or general, as such finding
Plaintiffs contended during the trial that the act was a special or local law, irregularly passed without public notice of the intention to apply therefor and without the general object thereof expressed as required by
In order to place the issue of general versus special or local law in proper perspective, a brief summary of the act‘s provisions is necessary. Art. 1 declares that there are approximately 21,000 acres of salt water swamps, meadows and marshes, commonly known as meadowlands, in the lower Hackensack River basin, and lists among the objectives of the act: the orderly, comprehensive development of the Hackensack Meadowlands in order to provide more space for industrial, commercial, residential, public, recreational
Art. 6 empowers the Commission to issue bonds and notes. Art. 7 authorizes it to condemn land within or without the district when necessary, notwithstanding that the land in question may already be in the hands or under the control of a municipality or other public agency. However, § 37 of the act provides for payments to municipalities in lieu of taxes. Art. 8 provides for special assessments against real estate located in improved districts which the Commission is empowered to establish. Assessments against public lands can be paid from State funds. Art. 9 contains the inter-municipal tax-sharing feature by which the constituent municipalities share the tax benefits and burdens resulting from the Commission‘s development and redevelopment activities.
Art. 10 contains the act‘s general provisions. Among them is one empowering any public body to cooperate with the Commission. Additionally, the article provides that the Commission may enter into contracts with one or more municipalities, counties or other public agencies for the operation of public works and improvements. The remainder of the act establishes the procedure for the determination of title to the meadowlands, both within and without the district, by amending and supplementing the Department of Conservation and Economic Development Act of 1948
Plaintiffs contend that the act, by definition, is private, special or local because its application is restricted to some 18,000 acres in Hudson and Bergen Counties affecting some 14 constituent communities. They reason that this constitutes a designation and not a classification, thus rendering the act invalid on its face.
[Based on expert testimony developed in the case, the court found that the areas excluded from the district represented a reasonable and proper exercise of legislative judgment. The court concluded:]
The Hackensack meadowlands in the 14 constituent municipalities thereof are distinguished by characteristics sufficiently marked in importance to constitute them a separate class among other areas and municipalities in New Jersey. None of the Legislature‘s exclusions of other areas and municipalities from the regulated class is arbitrary. Each is supported by the application of recognized planning principles thereto.
Our Courts have dealt with other legislation regulating specific areas of the State. The decisions in State v. Corson, 67 N.J.L. 178 (Sup. Ct. 1901); Van Cleve v. Passaic Valley Sewerage Com‘rs, 71 N.J.L. 183 (Sup. Ct. 1904), rev‘d on other grounds, 71 N.J.L. 574 (E. & A. 1905), and Sherwood v. Bergen-Hackensack Sanitary Sewer Authority, 24 N.J. Misc. 48 (Sup. Ct. 1946), aff‘d 135 N.J.L. 304, 309 (E. & A. 1947), all address themselves to legislation which regulated specific areas of the State. See also cases cited in In re Freygang, 46 N.J. Super. 14, at 24 (App. Div. 1957), aff‘d 25 N.J. 357 (1957). In all these cases
Thus, the issue in this aspect of the case is reasonable classification viewed against the purpose which the act exists to serve. Bayonne v. Palmer, 90 N.J. Super. 245, 284 (Ch. Div. 1966), aff‘d 47 N.J. 520 (1966). A threshold question is the manner in which this issue is to be resolved. Plaintiffs seem to suggest at the trial that the burden was upon the State not only to prove the reasonableness of its classification, but to establish that the meadowland district, if not divinely ordained, was at least divinely inspired. They are in error. The act is presumptively valid and the onus of establishing that it is not rests on them. Jamouneau v. Harner, 16 N.J. 500, 515 (1954); In re Freygang, supra, 46 N.J. Super. at 28. Moreover, the State does not have the burden of proving that the meadowland district is susceptible to any other dimensions than those it now has. The act must be viewed in the light of the Legislature‘s power to classify for purposes of regulation. The
* * * And a classification is reasonable if it rests upon some ground of difference having a real and substantial relation to the basic object of the particular enactment or on some relevant consideration of public policy. If there is a reasonable distinction,
In brief, the Legislature is accorded a broad discretion in the area of permissible classification, Passaic v. Consolidated Police, etc., Pension Fund Comm‘n, 18 N.J. 137, 146 (1955), and it is only when the purported basis for classification is illusory that the courts will condemn the product thereof, Van Riper v. Parsons, 40 N.J.L. 1, 9 (Sup. Ct. 1878).
Whether the act is a general one or not depends upon the factual basis for the Legislature‘s classification. Van Cleve v. Passaic Valley Sewerage Com‘rs, supra, 71 N.J.L. at 201. At the trial defendant‘s evidence sought to establish the unique nature of the Hackensack meadowlands, defined in § 3 of the act (
It was established that the line on the map defining the meadowlands district was the product of a series of decisions, each based upon planning criteria, made between competing alternatives. It was not claimed that reasonable persons could not draw the boundary differently. It was recognized that the district could have other dimensions and still suit the act‘s purposes. Doubtless there are some areas which could arguably be included within the district, just as there are areas which arguably could be excluded.
Months before the act became law, Commissioner Ylvisaker, testifying before a legislative committee in support of the bill which became the act, recognized that there is no such thing as a line on a map that all will accept. Hearings on Senate Bill 477 before Joint Commissions on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources, at 87, 88.
Mankind‘s bloody history provides a basis for his observation. Unlike other lines, which often are the product
Before concluding on the issue of general versus local law, plaintiffs’ argument that there are other regions in the State equally susceptible to regional planning and thus the Legislature should have provided for these areas as well in the act, should not be overlooked. However, the failure to include them in the act does not render the act invalid.
Plaintiffs’ premise is incorrect. The Hackensack meadowlands are unique, if only for the reason that they constitute a vast reservoir of vacant lands situated in the midst of the New York-Northeastern New Jersey metropolitan area. No other area — not even the Raritan meadows — is similarly located. Population pressures on other regions of the State may some day warrant their receiving the same legislative treatment currently afforded the Hackensack meadows. This does not mean, however, that the Legislature must defer dealing with the exigent problems of the Hackensack meadowlands until such time as conditions in other regions of the State justify similar legislative treatment.
The argument that in other parts of the state there now exist similar conditions that ought to be dealt with in like manner, even if it were based on a correct statement of the fact, which it is not, should be addressed to the lawmaking power, and not to the courts. It is for the Legislature to decide whether certain territory should be subjected to sanitary and police regulations of the character now
Nor are they necessary in order to avoid conflict with the Constitution. The purpose of the prohibition against “special or local” laws is not to prevent legislation where there is but one individual to be dealt with. The purpose is to prevent unfounded discrimination where there are two or more individuals to be dealt with. [Van Cleve, supra, 71 N.J.L. at 206, 207. See also, Robson v. Rodriquez, 26 N.J. 517, 524 (1958); New Jersey Restaurant Ass‘n, Inc. v. Holderman, 24 N.J. 295, 300 (1957)]
II
Plaintiffs have particularly focused their attention on the formula provided in Art. 9 of the act, commonly characterized as the inter-municipal tax-sharing account, and its alleged invalidity.
The provisions concerning the inter-municipal tax-sharing account appear in §§ 59 to 74 of the act,
Under the Commission‘s master plan powers (Art. 5 of the act,
Obviously, some uses, such as industries, result in valuable ratables which do not bring with them a proportional
Art. 9 is the legislative answer to the unfairness which would otherwise be the product of the Commission‘s land use power. It equitably apportions the benefits of the Commission‘s activities among the constituent municipalities, thus avoiding the bickering for ratables which, according to the Meyner Commission Report, at 17 (June 1965), has characterized meadowland “development” as it has occurred to date.
The concept behind the inter-municipal account begins with each municipality incurring a gross obligation based upon the new aggregate true value of real property in that part of the meadowland district which lies within the municipal limits, computed with reference to the base year 1969.2 The aggregate true value of all such real property as of October 1, 1969, is compared against the aggregate true value thereof as of October 1 of each year commencing with 1970, to determine the increase or decrease in aggregate true value which will be used in the inter-municipal account calculations for the succeeding adjustment year commencing with 1971. (§ 65(a) (1) of the act,
Aggregate true value is, in all instances, computed on the basis of well-established practices. In the first instance, the municipal assessor annually values the meadowland district real property within his jurisdiction, at which time he is to determine the full and fair value thereof. Thereafter — since local assessments rarely reflect true value, but only a percentage thereof, Switz v. Kingsley, 37 N.J. 566 (1962);
The municipality‘s gross as distinguished from net obligation is determined by multiplying the increase in aggregate true value of its real property for the year in question by the apportionment rate, which boils down to the average tax rate of the 14 constituent municipalities (§§ 65(a) (3) and (b);
The act provides for credits against each municipality‘s gross obligation to the fund. There is a credit related to the cost of new municipal services, police, firemen, sanitation, schools and the like, which each municipality provides to the district (§§ 67 and 68,
The contribution of each municipality to the inter-municipal account, or its receipt of funds therefrom — in either case called the meadowland adjustment payment — is simply the net amount derived by subtracting the amount of the service project guarantee and apportionment payments from the gross sum due the inter-municipal account. If the payments exceed the amount due, the municipality
The premise behind Art. 9 is that, as a result of the Commission‘s activities, partciularly in development and planning, the value of real property within the meadowland district will be enhanced far beyond what would be the case were the municipalities therein to be left to their own devices. It envisions that all municipalities will reap the benefits from this new value in the form of ratables and revenue therefrom which would otherwise be lost. The effect on the tax rate of each municipality, from these otherwise unavailable ratables, must be beneficial. Art. 9 simply exists to equitably apportion the benefits so derived.
The result of Art. 9 will be to call upon some of the constituent municipalities (the number and identity thereof will probably change from year to year) to remit a part of the new revenues they receive from new meadowland value to those municipalities in which are located the schools, parks and residences which do not provide valuable tax ratables. Plaintiffs urge this to be constitutionally objectionable.
Their attack on the inter-municipal tax-sharing account appears to rest upon several constitutional provisions. The first is that the act is a private, special or local law relating to taxation or exemption therefrom, and so treats with a subject prohibited to the Legislature by
Art. 9 and the inter-municipal account are sui generis. Research has found nothing comparable thereto, either in New Jersey or anywhere else. It does not appear that the act directly imposes a state tax on the citizens and taxpayers of those municipalities as will be, from time to time, required to make a payment into the inter-municipal account.3 In legal contemplation, such payments are obligations related to a public purpose which the State can properly require its subordinate political subdivisions to incur. In any event, Art. 9 and its operation have an effect on municipal taxes. Nevertheless, since the act is a general law, such effect is constitutionally permissible under the express provisions of
A. The State is empowered to require its subordinate political subdivisions to incur expenses related to a public purpose. The payments that some of the constituent municipalities will from time to time make to the inter-municipal account are such expenses. Art. 9 of the act, which imposes such requirements, is therefor valid.
The act imposes the meadowland adjustment payment directly on the constituent municipalities, and only indirectly on the taxpayers thereof. Section 72(c) of the act (
It is clear that the State is empowered to impose costs and expenses on its units of local government to fulfill a public purpose, even when the municipalities subject to the State‘s charge must raise money by taxation to pay the obligation so imposed, Easton and Amboy R.R. Co. v. Central R.R. Co., 52 N.J.L. 267, 275-276 (Sup. Ct. 1890). See also, 2 McQuillin, Municipal Corporations, §§ 4.159, 4.162; 16 Ibid., § 44.33; 37 Am. Jur., Municipal Corporations, § 91.4
This conclusion rests on two well recognized principles. “Municipal corporations are merely political subdivisions of the State and the legislative control over them is almost unlimited,” Becker v. Adams, 37 N.J. 337, 340 (1962); Jersey City v. Martin, 126 N.J.L. 353, 361 (E. & A. 1941), and “* * * All taxes, whether levied for state, county, or municipal purposes, are state taxes; they can be imposed by no other authority than that of the state. The state appropriates the proceeds to what purposes it sees fit; but, however the proceeds may be appropriated, every tax is a state tax.” State Board of Assessors v. Central R. Co., 48 N.J.L. 146, 280 (E. & A. 1886). See also, Ridgefield Park v. Bergen County Board of Taxation, 61 N.J. Super. 170, 181 (Law Div. 1960), rev‘d on other grounds 33 N.J. 262 (1960), app. dism. 365 U.S. 648, 81 S.Ct. 834, 5 L.Ed.2d 857 (1961).
In New Jersey two conditions limit the power of the Legislature to impose an expense on its political subdivisions — the expense must be for a public purpose5 and the statute which imposes it must be general and not special, private or local.6
Some constitutions expressly prohibit the Legislature from compelling municipalities to incur debts. See, e.g.
The act clearly meets both conditions. While the benefits thereof and the Commission‘s activities will primarily benefit the meadowland communities through increased revenues
And, while Art. 9 clearly relates to the matter of taxation within the 14 constituent municipalities, it is a general law. The incidental effects it has on municipal taxation, just as with the incidental effect it has on other matters of municipal concern, are constitutionally permissible. Jamesburg v. Hubbs, 6 N.J. 578, 584, (1951); Lynch v. Edgewater, 8 N.J. 279, 292 (1951); Hardy v. Ruhnke, 47 N.J. 10, 21 and Van Cleve v. Passaic Valley Sewerage Comm‘rs, supra, 71 N.J.L. at 198, 199.
These conclusions are tested against the decision of the Court of Errors and Appeals in Jersey City v. Zink, 133 N.J.L. 437 (E. & A. 1945), in which the court held that a series of statutes, the operation of which bore a superficial resemblance to Art. 9, were constitutionally invalid as private, local or special laws regulating the internal affairs of 14 plaintiff municipalities in which Class II railroad property was located.
The statutes under attack in Zink combined to provide that part of the interest of Class II railroad property taxes was to go into the State Treasury and to appropriate the funds so placed for general school purposes in municipalities throughout the State. Prior to the enactment of the statutes it appears that the practice was to pay all such interest to plaintiff municipalities.
The court first found that the funds representing the interest on the past-due taxes were the property of the 14 municipalities and that the statutes served to divest them thereof and to place the funds in the State Treasury for the use of other municipalities. The court then held that the effect of the statutes was arbitrarily to divide New Jersey‘s municipalities into two classes: the 14 entitled to receive the interest on Class II railroad property taxes and
The acts in question plainly violate Article IV, Sec. VII, par. 11, of the Constitution, N.J.S.A. in that they are special and discriminatory and arbitrarily create a classification of 14 contributing municipalities and 553 beneficiary municipalities.
Under this provision of the Constitution, the State may not arbitrarily take funds from one municipality and allot them to another, nor arbitrarily require a group of municipalities to contribute from their tax revenues to the support of the state government and absolve others from the same obligation, especially where the diverted funds are derived from assessments levied upon local properties. * * *.
The distribution of the burden cannot be arbitrary or unreasonable [at 447, emphasis supplied]
The court‘s holding in Zink and the applicability of its decision to the case at bar rest upon its finding that the effect and purpose of the statutes was arbitrarily to classify New Jersey‘s municipalities into burdened and benefited classes.
They [acts] create preferences and inequalities within a class and do not operate equally on all members of the class. * * * They do not incidentally produce a local or special result but were illusorily conceived with a purpose and idea that their inherent force and scope would produce a local and not a general result * * *. [at 448].
Zink seems to hold that the fatal weakness of the statutes was that the burden they imposed upon the 14 municipalities was the sole basis for the resultant classification of New Jersey‘s municipalities and, indeed, the sole purpose behind the statutes. Besides the fact that the burdened municipalities contained Class II railroad property and those benefited did not, there were no other factors to distinguish between the two classes. The burden was not only not an incidental result of an otherwise legitimate legislative classification; without it there would be no classification at all.
The act is a general law. While it obviously relates to the tax rate of each constituent municipality, it is equally and obviously an incidental effect visited on the municipalities by operation thereof and in furtherance of the act‘s purposes. The tax-sharing which Art. 9 brings about is not, unlike the statutes considered in Zink, the sole purpose behind the act and its reason for being. Rather, and as § 59(a) of the act (
Nor do I find in the act the arbitrary allotment of tax revenues from one municipality to another which Zink condemned. No decision which research discloses prohibits the allotment of tax revenues from one municipality to another. Indeed, given the State‘s sovereignty over its municipal subdivisions, and the principle that all taxes are imposed under ultimate legislative authority, see State Board of Assessors v. Central R. Co., supra, 48 N.J.L. 146, the failure to find such a decision is not surprising. Thus, the issue is not whether the Legislature has the power to apportion tax revenues, but whether in particular circumstances the exercise of its power is arbitrary.
In Zink the Court of Errors and Appeals found the Legislature‘s exercise of its power to be arbitrary. In Newark v. Public Service Coord. Transport, 9 N.J. Misc. 772 (Sup. Ct. 1931), aff‘d 109 N.J.L. 270 (E. & A. 1932), the court upheld a statute which required the City of Newark to pay for the public transportation of police officers, including those from other municipalities. Newark claimed that the statute violated Art. IV, § VII, par. 12 of our 1844 Constitution. Its theory proceeded on the basis that the effect thereof was to levy upon it an arbitrary and undefined contribution for the benefit of other municipalities.
The statute there under attack provided that owners of street cars and buses could deduct the cost of free transportation they were required to provide to police officers from their municipal taxes. Newark argued that since police officers from other municipalities could ride free on buses and street cars operated by Public Service, a Newark taxpayer, its tax receipts therefrom were decreased by an amount equal to the cost of providing free transportation to police officers from other municipalities. The result, in Newark‘s contemplation, was the arbitrary diversion of its tax revenues for the benefit of other municipalities. The court rejected Newark‘s challenge. It held that Newark stood to benefit from the transportation of police officers riding on trolleys and buses within its municipal limits, notwithstanding that some of the police officers in question may have been from other municipalities. This fact served to relieve the statute of any arbitrary effect as to Newark, since its citizens received a benefit along with the cost.
The same principle operates with respect to those municipalities required to make contributions to the inter-municipal account. The account is essential to the successful development of the Hackensack meadowlands (§ 59(a) of the act, supra). The act will benefit all of the constituent municipalities through the development of lands which thus far have lain idle. The cost of any municipality‘s contribution to the inter-municipal account is directly related to new value in its meadowlands. By definition, such cost cannot be an arbitrary exaction for the benefit of other
In summary, the act is a general law. It imposes a cost upon some of the constituent municipalities which must be met by taxation. The State is empowered to impose such a cost so long as the act which imposes it is general. Moreover, the fact that part of the revenues of municipality X are payable to municipality Y is of no constitutional significance, given the relationship between the State and its political subdivisions, so long as the allotments between one and another are reasonable, as they are here, and not arbitrary. It is therefore valid under
B. The act does not violate
Plaintiffs’ reliance on the holdings in Van Cleve v. Passaic Valley Sewerage Comm‘rs, 71 N.J.L. 574 (E. & A. 1905), and Bernards Tp. v. Allen, 61 N.J.L. 228 (E. & A. 1897), rests in misconception. Both cases involve statutes giving appointed officials practically unlimited discretion to determine the amounts which municipalities subject to their jurisdiction were required to raise by taxation. The court held that the statutes were tantamount to an unlawful delegation of the taxing power, which could only be made to political subdivisions for the purpose of raising revenues to meet the cost of local government.
Unlike the statutes considered in Van Cleve and Bernards, the Legislature has not conferred upon the Commission unlimited discretion to determine the amount of the meadowland adjustment payment each contributing municipality is to make. The Commission‘s function in this regard is largely one of doing the arithmetic based upon an
Property shall be assessed for taxation under general laws and by uniform rules. All real property assessed and taxed locally or by the State for allotment and payment to taxing districts shall be assessed according to the same standard of value; and such real property shall be taxed at the general tax rate of the taxing district in which the property is situated, for the use of such taxing district.
The first sentence is identical to the first two clauses in its counterpart in the
Property shall be assessed for taxation under general laws, and by uniform rules, according to its true value.
The difference between the 1844 and 1947 taxation provision are twofold. The first is found in the substitution of the new “according to the same standard of value” assessment
* * * and such real property shall be taxed at the general tax rate of the taxing district in which the property is situated, for the use of such taxing district.
The history for this clause relates to the tax treatment of Class II railroad property, which is all real property used for railroad purposes exclusive of the main stem. Under a series of statutes dating from 1844 (L. 1884, C. 101) the Legislature provided that municipalities in which Class II railroad property was located would receive the tax revenue therefrom. The earlier acts (L. 1884, c. 101, and L. 1905, c. 91) provided for state valuation of Class II property against which the municipal tax rate would be applied. Thereafter, the State would collect the tax for the use of the municipality. The railroads objected to these statutes on grounds that treating their real property differently from other municipal ratables for purposes of valuation and collection offended Art. IV, § VII, par. 12 of the 1844 Constitution. The Court of Errors and Appeals upheld the statutes, holding that property used for railroad purposes was a proper class for the valuation of property for taxation and the collection of the resulting tax. State Board of Asesssors v. Central R. Co., 48 N.J.L. 146 (E. & A. 1886); Bergen and Dundee R. Co. v. State Board of Assessors, 74 N.J.L. 742 (E. & A. 1907).
L. 1941, c. 291 provided not only for the assessment of Class II railroad property and the collection of taxes thereon. It also levied a tax of $3 per $100 of assessed value on such property, which was a lower tax rate than that prevailing in many if not all municipalities in which Class II property
This view of Art. IV, § VII, par. 12, prompted the League of Municipalities, through Milton B. Conford (now Appellate Division judge, to urge the delegates to the 1947 Constitutional Convention to adopt a tax clause which would prohibit preferential treatment for Class II railroad property and which would overturn the decision in Jersey City v. State Board of Tax Appeals, supra. See 5 Proceedings, Constitutional Convention of 1947, at 563-576.
The new clause accomplished the purpose which the League of Municipalities envisioned. Class II railroad property was required to be taxed at the same rate as other ratables within the tax district.8 Moreover, to the extent that the clause was directed to the Supreme Court‘s decision
Art. 9, when viewed against the language and history of
The Court of Errors and Appeals held, in Jersey City v. Martin, supra, 126 N.J.L. at 359, that the apportionment of taxes collected is an incident of the collection function, and that the principles governing the levying of taxes have no relation to their distribution by the State, citing Bernards Tp. v. Allen, supra.
This is consistent with the holding in Trustees for Support of Public Schools v. Trenton, 30 N.J. Eq. 667 (Ch. 1879) which held:
The “mere machinery” of assessment and collection “is left to legislative discretion.” Kirkpatrick v. New Brunswick, 40 N.J. Eq. 46, 52 (Ch. 1885), aff‘d sub. nom. Taxpayers’ Protective Ass‘n v. Kirkpatrick, 41 N.J. Eq. 347 (E. & A. 1886).
Thus, to the extent that the Legislature has classified the real property in the constituent municipalities for tax purposes — which it really has not — the classification only relates to apportionment of tax funds, an incident of the collection function, with respect to which the Legislature retained its power of classification after the 1947 Constitution was adopted. New York, Susquehanna and Western R.R. Co. v. Vermeulen, supra, 44 N.J. at 499.
In sum, it still appears that Art. 9 of the act under attack is sui generis and that the only constitutional tax provision impinging upon it is
III
The act does not violate
The act has been held to be a general law. See I. The last paragraph in
IV
The act does not violate
The Legislature may enact general laws under which municipalities, other than counties, may adopt zoning ordinances limiting and restricting to specified districts and regulating therein, buildings and structures, according to their construction, and the nature and extent of their use, and the nature and extent of the uses of land, and the exercise of such authority shall be deemed to be within the police power of the State. Such laws shall be subject to repeal or alteration by the Legislature.
It is obvious from the language of this provision itself that it merely permits the Legislature to delegate to municipalities such part of its police powers as relate to zoning and land use control.
Plaintiffs apparently urge that delegation is equivalent to abdication and that the Legislature is powerless to provide
Municipalities, like other political subdivisions, are creatures of the State. They are not independent principalities. Art. 5 of the act concededly serves to limit the power of the 14 meadowlands municipalities to regulate land uses within the meadowlands district. In legal effect, this translates over to a legislative abridgment of a previously conferred power upon a subordinate political unit, a matter which is well within the sovereign‘s authority.
This principle is well illustrated in N.J. Interstate Bridge and Tunnel Comm. v. Jersey City, 93 N.J. Eq. 550 (Ch. 1922). The Legislature there provided for the construction of the Holland Tunnel. As work prepared to commence, Jersey City police officers appeared on the scene and prohibited any construction until the contractor obtained a permit conforming with Jersey City‘s building code.
The court enjoined Jersey City from interfering with the conduct of the State‘s project. It observed that the city‘s powers under its building code were subject to repeal by the State, which granted the powers in the first place. It then held that the act providing for the construction of the Holland Tunnel overrode the provisions of Jersey City‘s building code and nullified it to the extent it required the State to comply therewith.
Municipalities are the creatures of the state and the powers given to them are always subject to be abridged or repealed by the sovereign who conferred them. See Eastern Tel. [& Tel.] Co. v. Public Utility Board, 85 N.J.L. 511, 89 A. 924 (Sup. Ct. 1914). The building code of Jersey City was of course enacted subject to the power of the state to modify or annul it at any time. And the state, in the act creating the bridge and tunnel commission and clothing it with power to provide for interstate bridges or tunnels, with all the powers appropriate and necessary for the proper performance of such duties, without any limitation as to municipal control, overrode that code to the extent of nullifying its provisions so far as they required compliance with them by the state. [at 553]
The act, and particularly Art. 5 thereof, serves partially to withdraw the Legislature‘s earlier grant to the 14 municipalities of its power to regulate the use of land. This is implicit in the act and explicit in the result. It is also permissible under our State Constitution.
V
The act does not violate
Section 103 of the act states its effective date to be July 1, 1968. The act was signed into law on January 13, 1969. Plaintiffs theorize that the enactment into law on January 13, 1969 invalidated contracts executed between July 1, 1968 and the latter date, and that acts done between the two dates, which were legal when done, were made illegal after the act finally became law.
Notwithstanding the act‘s stated effective date, it did not go into effect until the date of its passage, January 13, 1969. McLaughlin v. Newark, 57 N.J.L. 298, 302 (Sup. Ct. 1894), aff‘d 58 N.J.L. 202 (E. & A. 1895).
VI
The act does not violate
To avoid improper influences which may result from intermixing in one and the same act such things as have no proper relation to each other, every law shall embrace but one object, and that shall be expressed in the title * * *
The title of the act reads as follows:
The title of the act accurately reflects its object, which is to reclaim and develop the Hackensack meadowlands. Part A of the act (§§ 1-85,
The relationship between the act‘s two parts and the development of the Hackensack meadowlands does not take too much ingenuity to discern. Part A provides for their physical reclamation, which would at the least be hindered unless an orderly procedure for resolving the problems of clouded title occasioned by O‘Neill v. State Highway Department, 50 N.J. 307 (1967), were also provided.
The two parts of the act thus serve to advance the purpose thereof as reflected in its title, viz., “to provide for the reclamation, planning, development and redevelopment of the Hackensack Meadowland.”
It is true that the act‘s title does not catalogue its several provisions. This is the function of an index. Robson v. Rodriquez, 26 N.J. 517, 527 (1958). “The title of a law is only a general statement of purpose and not an index to its provisions.” N.J. Mortgage Finance Agency v. McCrane, 56 N.J. 414, 425 (1970). The act and its title contain several objects in furtherance of its purpose. Constitutionally, this is proper.
In Wilson v. Long Branch, 27 N.J. 360 (1958), cert. den. 358 U.S. 873, 79 S.Ct. 113, 3 L.Ed.2d 104 (1958), the Supreme Court considered the title of the Blighted
An act defining “blighted area“, authorizing municipalities to determine that areas are blighted areas, and to undertake the clearance, replanning, development and redevelopment of such areas.
The title was attacked because, like the present act, it contained three objects. The court held that
The standard prescribed for the title does not require that it contain a resume, of the provisions of the act. Compliance exists when it expresses the general purpose and when all of the provisions of the legislation appear to be in furtherance of that purpose and appropriate to the end expressed. General Public Loan Corp. v. Director of Div. of Taxation, 13 N.J. 393, 403 (1953). In the present instance (1) the definition, (2) the authorization of municipalities to decide whether a particular area conforms to the definition, and (3) the authorization of municipalities to proceed to clear and redevelop the area are matters integrally related to the single objective, municipal improvement of blighted areas. State on Information of Dalton v. Land Clearance for Redevelopment Auth., 364 Mo. 974, 270 S.W.2d 44, 54 (Sup. Ct. 1954). * * * [27 N.J. at 373]
See also, State v. Zelinski, 33 N.J. 561, 565 (1960).
VII
The act does not violate
No law shall be revived or amended by reference to its title only, but the act revived, or the section or sections amended, shall be inserted at length. No act shall be passed which shall provide that any existing law, or any part thereof, shall be made or deemed a part of the act or which shall enact that any existing law, or any part thereof, shall be applicable, except by inserting it in such act.
Section 86 of the act amended § 17 of L. 1948, c. 448, the Department of Conservation and Economic Development Act of 1948, by inserting the underlined language:
And Sections 87 through 101 of the act supplemented L. 1948, c. 448, by adding new provisions thereto (
The act complies with the literal provisions of
VIII
The act does not violate
On November 25, 1968 Governor Hughes conditionally vetoed the bill which eventually became the act and returned it to the Assembly with his recommendations. The Assembly re-enacted it consistently with the Governor‘s recommendations, and the Senate concurred in the Assembly‘s actions, also on November 25, 1968.
These events bring into play the provisions of
* * * The Governor, in returning with his objections a bill for reconsideration at any general or special session of the Legislature, may recommend that an amendment or amendments specified by him be made in the bill, and in such case the Legislature may amend and re-enact the bill. If a bill be so amended and re-enacted, it shall be presented again to the Governor, but shall become a law only if he shall sign it within ten days after presentation; and no bill shall be returned by the Governor a second time. * * *.
IX
The act does not offend the rights of the individual plaintiffs (Cheval Brothers et al.) under the Fourteenth Amendment to the
The individual plaintiffs claim that the act subjects them and their property located within the district to controls and restrictions not imposed on property and the owners thereof located outside the district. They claim denial of equal protection of the laws. Their claim is groundless, for the same reason that the act is general and not private, special or local.
* * * the Legislature may classify different types of property owners and treat them differently without offending the fundamental law. The requirement of equal protection is satisfied if all persons within a class reasonably selected are treated alike. And a classification is reasonable if it rests upon some ground of difference having a real and substantial relation to the basic object of the particular enactment or on some relevant consideration of public policy. If there is a reasonable distinction, there is no oppressive discrimination. The Legislature has a wide range of discretion in this area and distinctions will be presumed to rest upon a rational basis if there be any conceivable state of facts which would afford
The difference between the Hackensack meadowlands and the rest of the State has been dealt with extensively, supra. The purpose of the act is to reclaim and develop this region. It is not even arguable that the factors which set this region apart from others are also the factors which informed the Legislature‘s purpose in enacting the law.
The individual plaintiffs fall within the regulated class. The regulations fall equally upon each of them. Thus, for the reasons set forth supra, they suffer no loss of the equal protection of the laws at the hands of the act.
The individual plaintiffs also claim that the act denies them due process of the law, presumably because of the nature of the regulations to which they, as members of the regulated class, are subject.
The guaranty of due process as it applies to cases of the type here under consideration requires only that a law shall not be unreasonable, arbitrary or capricious, and that the means selected shall bear a rational relation to the legislative object sought to be obtained. Nebbia v. New York, 291 U.S. 502, 54 S.Ct. 505, 78 L.Ed. 940 (1934); Schmidt v. Board of Adjustment of City of Newark, 9 N.J. 405, 414 (1952); Gundaker Central Motors v. Gassert, 23 N.J. 71 (1956). * * * [Robson v. Rodriquez, supra, 26 N.J. at 522, 523].
The purpose of the act, again, is to reclaim the Hackensack meadowlands which, over the course of New Jersey‘s history, have resisted development for the reasons set forth in § 1 thereof (
The Resource Development Council of the Department of Conservation and Economic Development published its map on January 22, 1970. Thus, the individual plaintiffs were unable to receive any conveyance of the State‘s interest to lands which they claim within the Hackensack meadowlands during the period January 13, 1969 to January 22, 1970.
The individual plaintiffs each brought independent actions, only portions of which are involved in the case at bar, seeking an order directing the Governor and other named officials to make the conveyances they seek. This aspect of the several complaints is not before this court at the present time, but is mentioned because of its relationship to the due process and equal protection issues discussed herein.
Since the moratorium of which plaintiffs complain is no longer in effect, it would seem their cause of action has been rendered moot, Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. Wojtycha, 48 N.J. 562, 566 (1957), particularly in view of the fact that an action for damages against the State will not lie. Willis v. Dept. of Conservation and Economic Development, 55 N.J. 534 (1970).
X
The act does not violate
The fund for the support of free public schools, and all money, stock and other property, which may hereafter be appropriated for that purpose, or received into the treasury under the provision of any law heretofore passed to augment the said fund, shall be securely invested, and remain a perpetual fund; and the income thereof, except so much as it may be judged expedient to apply to an increase of the capital, shall be annually appropriated to the support of free public schools, for the equal benefit of all the people of the State; and it shall not be competent for the Legislature to borrow, appropriate or use the said fund or any part thereof for any other purpose, under any pretense whatever.
The net proceeds from the sale, lease or transfer of the State‘s interest in the meadowlands shall be paid to the Fund for the Support of Free Public Schools established by the Constitution, Article VIII, Section IV, after deducting from the net proceeds any expenditures of the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission for reclaiming land within the district. The amount of said deduction for reclamation shall be paid to the Hackensack Meadowland Development Commission.
Plaintiffs argue that § 99 permits the State to divert the proceeds of the sale of tidelands, which are dedicated to the School Fund, pursuant to
Section 99 means that whenever property within the district which the Commission has reclaimed is sold, the Commission may deduct its cost of reclamation from the proceeds of the parcel or parcels sold, and remit the net to the Fund for the Support of Free Public Schools. There is no ambiguity in § 99 sufficient to admit to plaintiffs’ interpretation which, if correct, would pose serious constitutional questions.
A legislative enactment carries a strong presumption of conformity with the organic law, and mere doubts are not sufficient to negate the presumption. If the language under study admits of two interpretations, one rendering the statute invalid and the other valid, the construction sustaining constitutionality will be adopted. In re Village of Loch Arbour, 25 N.J. 258, 264, 265, 135 A 2d 663 (1957). The doctrine takes on added force when there is a strong societal objective to be served by a declaration of validity. State v. Monroe, 30 N.J. 160, 165 (1959).]
XI
The act does not violate the “one-man, one-vote,” principle secured by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Plaintiffs challenge the composition of the Municipal Committee under the “one-man, one-vote” doctrine. They complain that, for example, the value of Jersey City‘s vote on the Committee is no greater than that of South Hackensack, despite the fact that its population exceeds that of South Hackensack by many times.
The New York Court of Appeals considered this question in similar circumstances. In Bergerman v. Lindsay, 25 N.Y.2d 405, 306 N.Y.S.2d 898, 255 N.E.2d 142 (1969), cert. den. 398 U.S. 955, 90 S.Ct. 2173, 26 L.Ed.2d 540, it squarely rejected a contention that the composition of the New York City Board of Estimate, which is made up of the presidents of the city‘s unequally populated boroughs, violated the “one-man, one-vote” principle because the board was a governmental institution neither fitting fully into the role of a legislative body nor had “general governmental powers over the entire geographic area.” Obviously, the Hackensack Meadowlands Municipal Committee is cut of the same cloth, if not more so. See also, Avery v. Midland County, 390 U.S. 474, 88 S.Ct. 1114, 20 L.Ed.2d 45 (1968).
The Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission is an instrumentality of the State of New Jersey exercising, within its jurisdiction, essential governmental functions.
Plaintiff South Hackensack raises several issues through which runs a common thread, namely that the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission is a private corporation. Such is not the case. Section 5(a) of the act (
The powers which the Legislature conferred upon the Commission, particularly as they relate to land use and planning, lie at the heart of the State‘s power “so to order the affairs of the people as to serve the common social and economic needs, the principle that brought them together in civilized society for their mutual advantage and welfare, to which all property is subject; * * *.” Rockhill v. Chesterfield Tp., 23 N.J. 117, 124, 125 (1957).
To exercise the sovereign‘s power, the act provides for seven commissioners: the Commissioner of Community Affairs ex officio, and six citizen-commissioners appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate (§ 5(b) of the act (
Plaintiff South Hackensack also complains about the procedure set forth in §§ 90 and 91 of the act (
South Hackensack also complains about § 94 (b) and (c) of the act (
It is true that no express standards appear on the face of the act to govern the price which the Negotiation Board fixes for the conveyance of state-owned tideland to private persons. It would seem that § 94 tracks, in this regard, provisions appearing in
The reason for the continued absence of legislative standards to prescribe administrative action is that, due to the nature of the property conveyed, which is wholly in the State‘s domain, they are not constitutionally necessary.
This is seen in the Appellate Division‘s decision in Bailey v. Driscoll, 34 N.J. Super. 228 (App. Div. 1955), aff‘d in part, rev‘d in part on other grounds, 19 N.J. 363, (1955).
The court there stated:
* * * The inherent power of the State to grant or lease its lands under tidewater within its territorial limits has been delegated by the Legislature to the Planning and Development Council of the Division of Planning and Development of the Department of Conservation and Economic Development. The Council, subject to the approval of the Governor and the Commissioner of the Department,
* * * * * * *
* * * Of course, the [Resource Development] Council is entrusted with complete discretion as to whether it will convey anything and, if so, at what price, but that is not involved here. * * * [34 N.J. Super. at 252-253].
The proposition reflected in Bailey is simply stated: since there is no right to a conveyance of the State‘s interest in riparian property, there is no right which the Constitution could protect attendant to such conveyance. The State may set such price at it sees fit, and whether this uncontrolled discretion is exercised by the Legislature or an administrative body is legally immaterial.
XIII
Some plaintiffs take the position that the admittedly complex provisions of Art. 9 of the act constitute a delegation of taxing power to a “pool” of municipal officials, i.e., the governing bodies of each of the constituent municipalities, with the size of each municipal budget being “weighted” in its effect on the “pool” decisions. Yet, they say, this pool of officials does not exercise political powers — powers of local self-government throughout the district in entity form. Their only powers are expressed through the aegis of the Hackensack Meadowlands Municipal Committee consisting of the chief executive of each constituent municipality within the district, as established in Art. 4 of the act giving the Committee a limited veto over major decisions of the Meadowlands Commission.
Thus, efficiency in governmental operation results in fiscal disadvantage, while profligate spending is fiscally rewarded — i.e., vis-a-vis the operative effect on inter-municipal tax-sharing and guarantee payments under the formulas provided in Art. 9 of the act heretofore discussed.
(1) A constitutional requirement that the power of local taxation must be limited to political districts for the purpose of enabling them to exercise the powers of government conferred upon them within their locality, and
(2) The maxim that “taxation and representation go together.”
This argument is difficult of comprehension. Factually, municipality A‘s wasteful administration could conceivably result in municipality B having to pay more into the inter-municipal tax-sharing account despite its frugality in performing governmental service within its borders than would be the case if municipality A observed the same efficiency and frugality as B. To project this posture of facts to a conclusion that municipality A is, in effect, levying taxes in municipal B strains credulity, at least within the context of the constitutional tax provisions herein discussed.
The act projects in new and far-reaching dimensions the sense of an enlightened Legislature that in these complex times the limits of certain constitutional doctrines, first tested in simpler times when the allocation of powers between the State and its municipalities was perhaps easier of resolution, should be re-examined and re-evaluated. While stated in another context, a recent declaration of our Supreme Court is quite appropriate in the setting of the instant case:
The concept of “public purpose” is broad and is merely a reflection of the changing needs of society. As the needs change, the area of permissible governmental activity must change to meet those needs. [New Jersey Mortgage Finance Agency v. McCrane, 56 N.J. 414, 420 (1970)].
Of equal importance is the maxim that
There is a strong presumption that a statute is constitutional [citations omitted], and a legislative act will not be declared void unless its repugnancy to the Constitution is clear beyond a reasonable
For the foregoing reasons I find the act under consideration valid.