ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY, No. 5265

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  DECEMBER 18, 2025

The Assembly Appropriations Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments, Assembly Bill No. 5265 (1R).

      As amended, this bill proposes to enhance enforcement of the "Landscape Irrigation Contractor Certification Act of 1991" (act), P.L.1991, c.27 (C.45:5AA-1 et seq.), by empowering local enforcing agencies to: institute civil actions for injunctive or other appropriate relief, and assess civil administrative penalties, upon those who have violated the act or the rules adopted pursuant thereto.  Currently, the Board of Landscape Irrigation Contractors in the Department of Community Affairs (board) is solely responsible for enforcement of the act, without local support, to inspect job sites around the State to ascertain whether contractors are violating the act.  The bill allows each local (construction code) enforcing agency to inspect, fine, and shut down a work site if it is determined that a contractor has violated a provision of the act, including the provision that requires a contractor to be licensed in order to perform irrigation work.

      Additionally, the bill increases the amount a person may be penalized for violating the act to not more than $5,000 for the first offense, not more than $10,000 for the second offense, and not more than $15,000 for each subsequent offense. 

      If the board institutes an action against a person who violates the act, 100 percent of the revenue derived from each civil penalty levied is to be directed and made available to the board.  Conversely, if a local enforcing agency institutes the action, 30 percent of the revenue derived from each civil penalty levied is to be directed and made available to the board, and 70 percent of the revenue is to be retained by the municipality or pilot county in which the violation occurred.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to:

      (1) eliminate the Landscape Irrigation Penalty Enforcement Fund in the Department of Community Affairs, which would have been established by the bill to be a repository for revenue derived from violations of the act;

      (2) provide that if the board institutes an action against a person who violates the act, 100 percent of the revenue derived from each civil penalty levied is to be directed and made available to the board;

      (3) provide that if a local enforcing agency institutes the action, 30 percent of the revenue derived from each civil penalty levied is to be directed and made available to the board, and 70 percent of the revenue is to be retained by the municipality or pilot county in which the violation occurred; and

      (4) make technical changes.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) estimates that authorizing local enforcing agencies to enforce landscape irrigation law would result in an annual State expenditure decrease and local expenditure increases.  The OLS cannot determine the number of cases which would be enforced by a local enforcing agency instead of the State, or the precise cost of enforcement per case.

      The OLS determines that the bill would have an indeterminate net impact on State revenues due to the: (1) increase in State revenue as a result of the increase in the penalties for violation of the landscape irrigation law; and (2) decrease in State revenue as a result of the retention of 70 percent of the revenue from penalties levied by a local enforcing agency in certain cases.