Counties and Municipalities

Our Public Finance attorneys have extensive experience serving as bond counsel for hundreds of bond and notes issues completed by counties and municipalities to finance a wide scope of capital and other improvement projects, including roads, water and sewer, wastewater, solid waste disposal, energy, housing, redevelopment, parking, library, and other governmental facilities projects and equipment. We regularly advise our clients with respect to compliance with the Local Bond Law, the Local Budget Law, the Local Fiscal Affairs Law, the Local Public Contracts Law, the Local Lands and Buildings Law, and the Local Redevelopment and Housing Law. If necessary, we also represent our clients before the New Jersey Local Finance Board. Additionally, we have significant experience in issuing bonds and notes to the New Jersey Investment Bank, formerly known as the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust Fund, and the United States Department of Agriculture. We also have numerous clients who issue bonds pursuant to the Municipal Qualified Bond Act. Additionally, we have assisted counties and municipalities in guaranteeing the debt of their subordinate authorities.

We have issued the following types of obligations for various counties and municipalities throughout the State of New Jersey:

• General Obligation Bonds (Tax-Exempt and Taxable)
• County College Bonds
• Bond Anticipation Notes
• Water Utility Bonds and Notes
• Sewer Utility Bonds and Notes
• Parking Utility Bonds and Notes
• School Bonds and Notes (Type I Districts)
• Tax Appeal Refunding Bonds and Notes
• Tax Anticipation Notes
• Emergency Notes
• Special Emergency Notes
• Redevelopment Area Bonds and Notes
• Refunding Bonds (Current and Advanced)
• Capital Appreciation Bonds
• Variable Rate Bonds
• Lease-purchase certificates of participation
• Capital leases
• Municipal Qualified Bond Act Bonds
• County/Municipal Guaranteed Bonds and Notes

Tax Appeal Refunding Bonds and Notes

We have served as bond counsel in the issuance of tax appeal refunding bonds for the City of East Orange, the City of Atlantic City, and the Borough of Red Bank. We have also served as underwriter’s counsel for multiple tax appeal bond issues by the City of Newark. Most notably, we served as bond counsel in connection with the authorization, issuance, sale, and delivery of $93,000,000 aggregate principal amount of Tax Appeal Refunding Bonds for the City of Atlantic City, which is the largest municipal tax appeal bond issue in the history of the State of New Jersey. We were not only successful in obtaining the approval of the Local Finance Board for the issuance of Atlantic City’s tax appeal bonds, but we were also able to successfully negotiate a 20-year payoff schedule for the bonds. We also performed extensive tax analysis to support issuing $90,380,000 of Atlantic City’s tax appeal bonds on a tax-exempt basis.    

Public Finance team Co-Chair, Everett M. Johnson has been a Commissioner on the Essex County Board of Taxation since June 2003 and has significant experience in the area of tax appeals and bond issuances related thereto.