With aid nixed, Atlantic City to consider bankruptcy filing

A report compiled by a special emergency manager that Christie hired says Atlantic City only has enough cash to make it to April. “We couldn’t mismanage a paper clip without a review”, Guardian said.

“Clearly, Atlantic City has lost the ability to help itself”, Sweeney added.

Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian, left, and City Council President Marty Small, right, speak at a news conference in Trenton, N.J., on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016, at which they said the city will consider filing for bankruptcy. The city says it doesn’t have the money – and can not realistically access bond markets – to make that payment. “It has not. The governor is not going to ask the taxpayers to continue to be enablers in this waste and abuse”. A likely Democratic candidate for the governor’s office next year, State Senate President Steve Sweeney, who originally championed the legislation, has now introduced a bill that would allow for a takeover of Atlantic City’s operations, including making major decisions such as selling off land and city assets. “A bankruptcy in Atlantic City would mean that every other community could file bankruptcy and would not take the prudent steps of reducing costs, of reducing staff in order to have a good and lower-cost government”. They called for public hearings on the bill to be held in Atlantic City, and started a petition against it.

A key provision of the legislation Christie let lapse would have required the city’s eight casinos to pay a collective sum of at least $120 million annually for 15 years to the city in lieu of property taxes. Competition from neighboring states has eroded Atlantic City’s onetime dominance over East Coast gambling and pushed what once was a gambling hub into state financial oversight.

A feud between northern and southern New Jersey legislators came to an end this week with a compromise that will allow voters to choose if they want to expand casino gambling to the northern part of the state. “If this was on the other side, we’d be indicted”.

Results from the most recent survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind shows that 50 percent of people oppose the idea of casino expansion, while 42 percent of respondents said they are in favor.

Sweeney (D., Gloucester), who is leading the takeover effort, described bankruptcy as the “worst possible outcome for Atlantic City and for the state of New Jersey”.

Atlantic City is left in an even more dire financial position because of Christie’s veto, and could further aid elected officials in their push for a state takeover of the resort. Sweeney doesn’t watch out.