Board of Chosen Freeholders v. State

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

PORITZ, C.J.

This appeal raises the question whether the construction and related borrowing costs associated with building, renovating and expanding judicial facilities, hereinafter usually referred to as “capital costs,” are to be assumed by the State under a 1992 amendment to the New Jersey Constitution, N.J. Const. art. VI, § VIII, ¶ 1, that governs state funding of the judicial system.

Prior to the amendment, the responsibility for financing the courts was controlled by statute. As enacted in 1991, Title 2B recodified the division of financial…