Senate President Richard J. Codey and Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr., on Tuesday announced plans for a special legislative session that would work throughout the summer and fall, with the goal of enacting property tax reforms by the end of this year.

“Local boards of education and their communities have contended with our state’s over-reliance on local property taxes for too long,” said Edwina M. Lee, NJSBA executive director, following the announcement. “The situation has a direct impact on a community’s ability to provide education.

“New Jersey ranks fifth among the 50 states in the share of school expenses funded by local property taxes, as opposed to state and federal aid, according to the National Education Association,” she noted.

The special legislative session process would begin in July when Governor Corzine would frame the goals and expectations in an address to a joint session of the Legislature.

Following the governor’s address, the Senate and Assembly both would pass joint resolutions to create four bipartisan committees consisting of members of both houses.

• School Funding This panel would seek reforms to the current school funding formula to mitigate disparities and inequalities.
  
  
• Benefits Reform The committee would use the report of the Pension and Benefits Review Task Force, which recommended major changes in pensions and health benefits last winter.
  
  
• Government Consolidation and Shared Services This panel would draft measures to promote service sharing at all levels of government and examine potential consolidation of certain state government functions.
  
  
• Constitutional Convention The committee would address property tax issues that require constitutional remedies with the goal of laying the groundwork for a Citizen’s Convention that would be put to the voters on the November 2007 ballot.

“With concrete results in the areas of school revenue reform, shared services and benefits reform, we may not need to hold a convention, which would not propose recommendations for at least three years,” noted NJSBA’s Lee.

Results by December According to Codey and Roberts, the committees would immediately begin to work on developing legislative proposals, with a deadline of September 30. The proposals would be forwarded to the Legislature’s standing committees with the goal of achieving final action by the end of the year.