TRENTON -Governor Chris Christie Friday, May 27 signed two Atlantic City reform bills a day after the Legislature approved them on Thursday.
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If the city can’t meet those goals, the Christie administration can move to take over the operations of city government – a power Christie had sought immediately in legislation that was passed by the Senate but hit a wall in the Assembly.
Christie said the new laws will give him the authority to reform Atlantic City’s “overblown municipal government”.
“We offered them this deal a year ago, and he overplayed his hands for political reasons, but what he did was damage Atlantic City, damage the businesses there and the people there”, Christie said.
Unions representing municipal workers oppose a state takeover, which could facilitate concessions to cut city costs but “I don’t know if that would be enough”, Pfeiffer said. The measure also allows the city government five months to formulate a plan for balanced budgets that will cover the next five years.
Jim Allen, CEO of Seminole Gaming and Hard Rock International, decried the impasse that led to Thursday’s votes.
New Jersey voters will decide in November whether to authorize two new casinos, though no locations have been specified.
Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto hailed the passage as an improvement over an earlier Senate- and Christie-backed bill that provided for an immediate takeover.
“My position on this has never wavered: bankruptcy can never be on the table for Atlantic City.”, said Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D-Voorhees), who had supported Sweeney’s plan from the start. He said, “This was very, very unnecessary”, and, “We’re coming up to Memorial Day”. The city also would be able to get at least $120 million each year from casinos under a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes plan that would last for 10 years.
He said Atlantic City should “let the north Jersey casinos go forward and take that tax revenue and use those revenues to rebuild the city”.
If Atlantic City fails to strictly comply with its recovery plan or if circumstances indicate that the plan is no longer likely to achieve financial stability, the commissioner can order state intervention, the release stated.
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In that scenario, the state would be able to terminate labor contracts, restructure debts, dissolve agencies, sell most city assets, and fire employees. AP material published by LongIsland.com, is done so with explicit permission. News stories displayed here appear in our category for Business and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.com and The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization. Please see our terms of service for more information.
