More Towns Join Opposition to Barnegat Bay Fund

Elected officials throughout the area have spoken out against a proposed piece of legislation in the state legislature.

A stipulation in Bill A-3538 would take $1 from every beach badge sold in the state of New Jersey and deposit it directly into the Save Barnegat Bay Fund.

The bill was sponsored by 10th District Assemblymen James W. Holzapfel and David W. Wolfe. It was introduced on Dec. 6, 2010 and has yet to be put to a vote.

"I think it's an injustice to the people of Monmouth County," Spring Lake Councilman Robert Drascheff said during a recent public meeting. "It's an unfair burden."

Members of the Spring Lake governing body noted that the borough had its own bodies of water in need of rehabilitation— namely Wreck Pond and Back Creek.

On Feb. 2, the Belmar Mayor and Council passed a resolution formally opposing the Save Barnegat Bay Fund.

Belmar Mayor Matt Doherty discussed his opposition to the measure in January.

"The Barnegat Bay is a great natural resource for New Jersey," Doherty said, noting that he and his family were frequent visitors to bay. "I don't think we need another tax in this state for any reason."

A similar resolution was also passed by the governing body in the borough of Manasquan on Feb. 22.

The bill states that the money in the Save Barnegat Bay Fund would be held by the Department of the Treasury and distributed in concert with the Commissioner of the State Department of Environmental Protection "exclusively for the purposes of the preservation and remediation of the Barnegat Bay estuary watershed."

Other sources of revenue for the fund will be specialty license plate fees, donations and one percent of sales tax collected on the sale of lawn fertilizer.