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SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE STATEMENT TO SENATE, No. 1393 STATE OF NEW JERSEY DATED: JUNE 16, 2008 The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 1393. The bill authorizes the transfer of the Atlantic City convention center project, consisting of the historic boardwalk convention hall and the new Atlantic City Convention Center, from the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA) to the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority (the "convention authority") established pursuant to P.L.1981, c.459 (C.52:27H-29 et seq.). Currently, the convention center project is operated by the convention authority under a contract with the NJSEA. The bill provides that, as soon as practicable after its enactment, and subject to the provisions of the bond resolution under which bonds of the NJSEA were issued to finance the project’s construction, the ownership and management of the project shall be transferred from the NJSEA to the convention authority. Thereafter, all functions, powers and duties with regard to the convention center project would be exercised by the convention authority. The bill empowers the convention authority, subject to the written approval of the State Treasurer, to issue bonds or notes for the general purposes of the authority including, but not limited to, the replacement of certain State contract bonds of the NJSEA that were issued to finance or refinance the convention center project. Under current law, the convention authority does not have the power to issue bonds or notes. The bill directs the NJSEA to seek any approval or consent of bondholders and other creditors, lessees, and other stakeholders that may be required to permit the State Treasurer to limit the remittance of Atlantic City luxury tax revenue to the NJSEA to the amount required to fund (i) debt service on NJSEA bonds covered by the bond resolution previously mentioned, and (ii) reserves required to be maintained under that resolution. The remaining revenue from the tax would be remitted to the convention authority to pay debt service on any bonds that it issues, to pay costs incurred in the operation and maintenance of the project, and for other purposes. The also provides for the renaming of the convention authority from the Atlantic City Convention Center Authority to the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority. The bill is identical to the Assembly Committee Substitute to Assembly Bill No. 2011.
The Atlantic City Convention Center project includes the convention center itself and the Historic Boardwalk Hall and its West Hall expansion. These facilities generate revenue from rents, parking fees, concession fees, charges for convention- and trade show-related services, and admission charges. These facilities usually run an operating deficit; in 2006 (the most recent year for which data is available), operating expenses ($30.9 million) exceeded revenue ($19 million) by almost $12 million. The NJSEA has financed the construction and renovation of the Convention Center project by issuing bonds. Four such bonds are presently outstanding; as of 2006, the total principal of these bonds amounted to roughly $348 million. Debt service on these bonds is payable from two sources: (1) revenue from the Atlantic City Luxury Tax, and (2) General Fund appropriations. (NJSEA is authorized to enter into contracts with the State Treasurer to receive payment from the General Fund of amounts necessary to fund debt service on its Convention Center-related bonds, subject to Legislative appropriation.) In State FY2007, the revenue from the luxury tax amounted to $28.3 million, while the State appropriation to the NJSEA’s Atlantic City projects was $15.4 million. Together, these moneys funded the Convention Center’s $12 million operating deficit and payments of $12.2 million in debt service on two NJSEA bonds issued under a bond resolution secured by luxury tax revenue; they also funded debt service on the remaining bonds covered by State contract commitments. This bill would not directly affect the amount of any costs or revenues related to the operation of the Convention Center project, nor would it affect the amount of the principal of or debt service on the bonds issued to finance construction and renovation of the project, or the amount of the State’s subsidy of that debt service. Rather, subject to the consent of the holders of NJSEA Convention Center bonds, the ownership of the Convention Center assets (valued at $335.3 million as of December 31, 2006) would be transferred from the balance sheet of the NJSEA to that of the convention authority. Likewise, the expenditures connected with the operation of the project would become expenditures of the latter authority and, as the Convention Center bonds of the NJSEA are paid or defeased, the amounts of luxury tax revenue no longer needed for debt service on those bonds, and therefore available for use of the convention authority, will increase. Directory: 20082009 -> S1500 20082009 -> MSc csym021 – Java Programming 20082009 -> Assembly, No. 3939 state of new jersey 213th legislature S1500 -> Senate, No. 1384 state of new jersey 213th legislature 20082009 -> Senate, No. 878 State of new jersey 213th legislature 20082009 -> Senate, No. 1577 state of new jersey 213th legislature S1500 -> Senate, No. 1168 state of new jersey 213th legislature 20082009 -> Assembly, No. 3113 state of new jersey 213th legislature Download 12.19 Kb. Share with your friends:
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