Atlantic City and Christie

In a rather strange turn of events, the Democrats in New Jersey are holding a so-called casino summit this weekend in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The summit is a response to the recent plan put forward by Governor Chris Christie calling for a state takeover of the Atlantic City casino district. As the Governor's reports said, after more than 30 years of casinos in Atlantic City, much of the area around the casinos remains run down and unsafe. The city simply has not accomplished much in the way of development.

I grew up in the Philadelphia area and I have been in Atlantic City at least once every summer of my life. The Governor's report is correct. While the many casinos are islands of modernity, there are also areas along the boardwalk and more further back from the ocean which are crumbling, unsightly and seemingly unsafe. There have been a few bright spots: the convention center and its hotel, the Walk (a large and successful outlet mall), the bus and rail terminals, and a few apartment buildings. In general, after more than 30 years, Atlantic City has little to show for the hundreds of millions of dollars that the casinos have paid in local taxes.

That leads to this summit. Not surprisingly, the summit was organized by the leaders of the NJ Legislature who excluded all Republicans from the panel for the event. No reason to hear both sides. Then the panel went ahead to scream about the takeover of private businesses by the state and the destruction of the horse racing industry in New Jersey.

This is truly strange. The plan calls for the state to take over the City's role in the area, not private businesses. didn't the panel participants bother to read this? Also, the horse racing industry last made a profit about 25 years ago. It only survives on payouts that it gets from casino taxes in the state. There is no reason why the state should continue to subsidize horse racing; it would do better to use the money for other purposes.

It would not take much to redirect millions of dollars of tax revenues away from cronies of the mayor and council in Atlantic City and into reinvestment in the area in partnership with private investors. without such improvements, AC may continue its recent decline. It no longer has a monopoly on gamblngin the region since all of the surrounding states now have casinos. Hopefully some variant of the Christie plan will get passed. Chris Christie should get great credit for taking on this problem which threatens the biggest industry in South Jersey.