If the clerk shall certify to the sufficiency of the petition, the said governing body or board of chosen freeholders shall, within thirty days after the filing of such petition, adopt a resolution authorizing the filing of a petition with the Legislature for the passage of a private, special or local law of the general nature described in the petition so filed with said clerk or in its discretion, adopt a resolution authorizing the submission of the proposal to file such a petition to the legal voters of the municipality or county at the next general election succeeding the adoption thereof, or if the resolution shall be adopted within ninety days next preceding such election, then at the next succeeding general election, in the case of a county or at the next succeeding general or municipal election, whichever shall occur first, in the case of a municipality.

L.1948, c. 199, p. 996, s. 3.