State Fiscal Year Municipalities - Best Practices Checklist - 02/15/2013

Municipalities on a State Fiscal Year budget cycle must return their completed Best Practices Inventory to DLGS by April 1, 2013.  The CY2012/SFY2013 Best Practices Inventory may be found on the DLGS website.  Local Finance Notice 2012-18 features instructions as well as the separate certification of governing body review that must be filed by municipal clerks. Completion and filing instructions are included in an Appendix to this Local Finance Notice. The Best Practices Initiative was authorized through the Fiscal Year 2013 State Budget to determine how much of each municipality's final 5% allocation of CMPTRA and ETR aid will be disbursed.  For questions, please send an email to DLGS@dca.state.nj.us with the subject heading "Best Practices Checklist" or call 609-292-6110.    

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The Division of Taxation is required by law to distribute copies of the 2012 Table of Equalized Valuations to various officials of each municipality, including Municipal Clerks and the County Tax Administrators of each County Board of Taxation, as per P.L. 1954, Chapter 86, N.J.S.A. 54:1-35.1 and N.J.S.A. 54:51 A-4(c).  The Equalization Tables can be viewed online.  For questions please e-mail Melissa.Gorman@treas.state.nj.us or call 609-633-1287.

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Hundreds of New Jersey families are still in search of short-term and long-term housing.  Owners of rental housing - be it furnished or unfurnished, with short-term leases or long-term leases - can help by listing their available rental units on the completely free New Jersey Housing Resource Center at www.njhrc.gov.  The process of listing an available unit takes about 10 minutes, is completely free and can be done online or by calling 877-428-8844. FEMA and relief workers are using www.njhrc.gov every day to help Sandy survivors locate housing.

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Municipal Clerks are reminded that the Mayor information provided through your Municipal Contact List (MCL) is critical for use by many State agencies, including DCA and the SAGE grant system (System for Administering Grants Electronically).  EVEN IF YOUR MAYOR INFORMATION DID NOT CHANGE from 2012, you must still CONFIRM THE INFORMATION LISTED IN YOUR MCL for 2013.  A tutorial is available in the Clerk document library.  If you need assistance updating the MCL form, please e-mail the GovConnect Helpdesk at EGG@dca.state.nj.us.

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Local Finance Notice 2013-04 provides critical information with respect to CY 2013 budgets, including information for municipalities experiencing significant revenue losses attributable to Superstorm Sandy. In addition, the notice contains budget deadline extension information.

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Local Finance Notices 2013-03 establishes new procedures for filing annual and supplemental debt statements and provides a link to the updated Annual Debt Statement form.

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A document has been posted to the Clerk Library which provides information regarding security deposits for residential rental properties affected by Hurricane Sandy.  When a residential rental unit is declared uninhabitable, the landlord is required to return the security deposit to the tenant.  Under the Security Deposit Law, the landlord may give the security deposit to the Municipal Clerk to hold, so the tenant can collect it from the clerk.  You should contact your municipal attorney if you have any questions concerning specific applications of the Security Deposit Law to landlords and tenants in your municipality.  For more general questions, please contact Karen.Schwacha@dca.state.nj.us

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