4. a. The county treasurer shall return to the county surrogate $2.00 of each fee received for the probate of a will; for the grant of general administration; for the grant of letters of guardianship; for the grant of letters of trusteeship for the filing of inventories; for the filing of accountings; and for any other proceeding filed, recorded or issued in the surrogate’s court. Such sums shall be returned within 10 days of receipt by the county treasurer.

b. Monies received by the county surrogates pursuant to the provisions of subsection a. of this section shall be used to upgrade and modernize the services provided by their offices. These monies shall not be used for budgetary reduction by the counties.

c. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, monies received by a county surrogate attributable solely to the amount of fee increases for services enumerated in N.J.S. 22A:2-30 pursuant to the amendments set forth in section 3 of P.L.2001, c.370, that exceed in any year the amount by which the annual minimum salary of the surrogate fixed pursuant to N.J.S. 2B:14-3 exceeds the amount of the surrogate’s salary in effect on November 1, 2000, shall be used for budgetary reduction by the county and shall be reflected as a county tax levy reduction.

L.1988,c.109,s.4; amended 2001, c.370, s.8.