Burlington County Freeholder Christopher J. Brown gave his support Friday to pending state legislation that would establish a New Jersey Homebuyer Tax Credit Program to provide three years of tax rebates to residents who purchase a home in 2010. Several hundred real estate professionals from across the state — most of whom support the homebuyers’ tax-rebate legislation in one form or another — will be attending “Realtors Day in Trenton” on Thursday, June 10. The event, sponsored by the New Jersey Association of Realtors, features a breakfast at which Gov. Chris Christie has been invited to speak, a full-morning panel discussion with leaders from both houses of the state Legislature, a lunchtime rally on the Statehouse steps and an afternoon of visits to different Senate and Assembly committee meetings.

One of the main discussion topics of Realtors Day undoubtedly will be A-1678, which was passed by the state Assembly on May 20, by a 67-8-2 vote, and sent to the state Senate for a potential vote in the near future. A-1678 would give residents who purchase a home in 2010 a series of tax credits spread out over three years totaling either $15,000 or 5 percent of the purchase price of the home, whichever is less.

The bill, which has strong bi-partisan support in both chambers, contains a somewhat controversial provision that — as part of an overall $100 million cap on the program — makes available a total of $75 million in credits for the purchase of a newly constructed home and a total of $25 million for the purchase of an existing dwelling.

While Freeholder Brown supports the general concept of A-1678, he believes the percentages of new construction credits versus existing home credits need to be shifted. He supports a change to $40 million in credits for new construction and $60 million for existing homes.

“New Jersey’s real estate market has more than nine months worth of inventory sitting out there unsold,” Brown said. “We should place more emphasis on getting these homes sold, occupied and back on the tax rolls.

“We need to make funding available to help encourage the purchase of abandoned residential properties throughout Burlington County,” Brown said. “This legislation will do that if we shift the emphasis to allow a larger amount of the tax credit to go toward the purchase of existing structures.”

In addition to reducing neighborhood and community blight, the rehabilitation of empty houses also pumps ancillary income into the local economy. It has been estimated that persons who buy an existing single-family home spend close to $20,000 on repairs, renovations and replacement items.

“People have to paint and install new carpet. They want to buy new furniture and replace old fixtures. These purchases put more money into our local towns and everyone benefits from that,” Brown said. “Not only will the bill stimulate the economy, but taxpayers also would get the funds back through higher revenues from sales taxes, income taxes and realty transfer fees.”

A related program that Brown says also would help the Burlington County economy is the creation of a Redevelopment Trust Account, an action for which he has lobbied throughout his nearly two-year tenure on the county Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Under the plan being proposed by Freeholder Brown, any municipality that is zoned by the county as an economically distressed community may opt out of the county Open Space Trust Account and have its funds redirected to the new Redevelopment Trust Account.

These municipalities — many of which in Burlington County are on or near the Route 130 / RiverLine corridor — must work within the guidelines of the Redevelopment Trust to qualify for funding from the Account. These funds could only be used for land acquisition and planning costs.

Brown said a developer selected by a municipality to purchase land acquired by the Redevelopment Trust would have to reimburse the Account in the form of a loan amortized over a period of 30 years at a low fixed interest rate.

“Among the many cost factors a developer faces when analyzing a project are those to acquire the land and raze buildings along with such soft costs as planning, engineering, legal fees and interest. Typically, these costs are not financed or are extremely difficult to finance through a bank,” Brown said. “This Trust Account will help ease a developer’s potential exposure and will help garner greater interest in already developed properties in need of revitalization.”

While the proposed Homebuyers’ Tax Rebate only can be offered on residential dwellings, money from the Redevelopment Trust Account can be used for commercial properties as well as for environmentally distressed manufacturing properties.

For more information on “Realtors Day in Trenton” on June 10, you can contact the New Jersey Association of Realtors at 732-494-4713 or by visiting www.njar.com. NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.