Concerns local taxation of business personal property of local exchange telephone companies.

This bill clarifies New Jersey's tax rules for telecommunications companies' business personal property, specifically targeting companies that held regional landline monopolies before the 1996 federal Telecommunications Act or their successors. It corrects a court misinterpretation by removing the requirement for these companies to meet a 51% dial tone access threshold annually; instead, they only need to have met it as of April 1, 1997, to remain subject to municipal property taxes. The bill also mandates that municipalities wining tax disputes against these companies recover attorney fees from the companies. This aims to end costly annual litigation and stabilize municipal tax bases, directly affecting telecom carriers like Verizon and the municipalities collecting these taxes.