(06/06/06) TRENTON ? New Jersey lawmakers are going to spend a significant portion of their summers in Trenton as they try to offer residents some type of property tax relief.

Property taxes in New Jersey are the highest in the nation. State Senate President Richard Codey (D) and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr. (D) announced a special legislative session Tuesday that will deal specifically with that issue. According to Codey, the session will run from mid-July through the fall. Lawmakers say a citizen?s convention on the November ballot could be a possibility.

Four bi-partisan committees, divided equally between the Senate and the Assembly, will be created to deal with the issue. Four Democrats and two Republicans will sit on each committee. Property taxes in New Jersey are about 50 percent higher than the national average in terms of the state?s reliance on them to pay for government services.