Provides exemption from payments in lieu of property taxes to certain veterans who have suffered permanent and total disability.

S3710

SENATE, No. 3710

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

�

INTRODUCED MARCH 2, 2026

Sponsored by:

Senator� DOUGLAS J. STEINHARDT

District 23 (Hunterdon, Somerset and Warren)

Co-Sponsored by:

Senator Diegnan

SYNOPSIS

���� Provides exemption from payments in lieu of property
taxes to certain veterans who have suffered permanent and total disability.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

���� As introduced.

��

An Act

providing an exemption from payments in lieu of
property taxes to certain veterans who have suffered a permanent and total
disability and amending P.L.1948, c.259.

����
Be It
Enacted
by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.
Section
1 of P.L.1948, c.259 (C.54:4-3.30)
is amended to read as follows:

���� 1.� a.�
(1)
� The
dwelling house and the lot or curtilage whereon the same is erected, of any
citizen and resident of this State, now or hereafter honorably discharged or
released under honorable circumstances, from active service in any branch of
the Armed Forces of the United States, who has been or shall be declared by the
United States Department of Veterans' Affairs or its successor to have a
service-connected disability from paraplegia, sarcoidosis, osteochondritis
resulting in permanent loss of the use of both legs, or permanent paralysis of
both legs and lower parts of the body, or from hemiplegia and has permanent
paralysis of one leg and one arm or either side of the body, resulting from
injury to the spinal cord, skeletal structure, or brain or from disease of the
spinal cord not resulting from any form of syphilis; or from total blindness;
or from amputation of both arms or both legs, or both hands or both feet, or
the combination of a hand and a foot; or from other service-connected
disability declared by the United States Veterans Administration or its
successor to be a total or 100 percent permanent disability, and not so
evaluated solely because of hospitalization or surgery and recuperation,
sustained through enemy action, or accident, or resulting from disease
contracted while in such active service, shall be exempt from taxation, on
proper claim made therefor, and such exemption shall be in addition to any
other exemption of such person's real and personal property which now is or
hereafter shall be prescribed or allowed by the Constitution or by law but no
taxpayer shall be allowed more than one exemption under this act.

����
(2)�
The
dwelling house and lot or curtilage of a person who meets all of the
qualifications set forth in paragraph (1) of this subsection shall be exempt
from any payment in lieu of property taxes imposed by the municipality in which
it is located, provided that the dwelling house and lot or curtilage is
occupied as the principal residence of the person.

����
The exemption provided
pursuant to this paragraph shall not apply to any homeowner�s association fee,
or any annual administrative fee imposed by a municipality, on such a dwelling
house and lot or curtilage.

���� b. �(1) �The surviving spouse
of any such citizen and resident of this State, who at the time of death was
entitled to the exemption provided under
[
this
act
]

paragraphs
(1) or (2) of subsection a. of this subsection
, shall be entitled, on
proper claim made therefor, to the same exemption as the deceased had, during
the surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while
a resident of this State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the legal
owner thereof and actually occupies the said dwelling house or any other
dwelling house thereafter acquired.

���� (2)� The surviving spouse of
any citizen and resident of this State who was honorably discharged and, after
the citizen and resident's death, is declared to have suffered a
service-connected disability as provided in subsection a. of this section,
shall be entitled, on proper claim made therefor, to the same exemption the
deceased would have become eligible for
pursuant to paragraphs (1) or (2) of
subsection a. of this section
.� The exemption shall continue during the
surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and while a
resident of this State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the legal
owner thereof and actually occupies the dwelling house or any other dwelling
house thereafter acquired.

���� c.� The surviving spouse of
any citizen and resident of this State, who died in active service in any
branch of the Armed Forces of the United States, shall be entitled, on proper
claim made therefor, to an exemption from taxation
or a payment in lieu of
property taxes
on the dwelling house and lot or curtilage whereon the same
is erected, during the surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case
may be, and while a resident of this State, for the time that the surviving
spouse is the legal owner thereof and actually occupies the said dwelling or
any other dwelling house thereafter acquired.

���� d.� The surviving spouse of
any citizen and resident of this State who died prior to January 10, 1972, that
being the effective date of P.L.1971, c.398, and whose circumstances were such
that, had said law become effective during the deceased's lifetime, the
deceased would have become eligible for the exemption granted under this
section as amended by said law, shall be entitled, on proper claim made
therefor, to the same exemption
from taxation or payment in lieu of property
taxes
as the deceased would have become eligible for upon the dwelling
house and lot or curtilage occupied by the deceased at the time of death,
during the surviving spouse's widowhood or widowerhood, as the case may be, and
while a resident of this State, for the time that the surviving spouse is the
legal owner thereof and actually occupies the said dwelling house on the
premises to be exempted.

���� e.� Nothing in this act shall
be intended to include paraplegia or hemiplegia resulting from locomotor ataxia
or other forms of syphilis of the central nervous system, or from chronic
alcohol use disorder, or to include other forms of disease resulting from the
veteran's own misconduct which may produce signs and symptoms similar to those
resulting from paraplegia, osteochondritis, or hemiplegia.

(cf:� P.L.2023, c.177, s.150)

���� 2.� This act shall take effect
January 1 next following enactment.

STATEMENT

���� This bill provides an
exemption from any payments in lieu of property taxes that are assessed on
certain real property owned by a veteran who has suffered a 100 percent
service-connected disability while serving in active service in any branch of
the Armed Forces of the United State.

���� Under current law, a veteran who
has suffered a 100 percent service-connected disability, as declared by the
United States Veterans Administration, is exempt from property taxation. �This
bill provides a similar exemption to these persons for any payments in lieu of
property taxes that may be imposed on their principal residence.� However, the
bill specifies that this exemption would not apply to any homeowner�s
association fee or any annual administrative fee imposed by a municipality.