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Two years after Gov. Chris Christie’s administration approved a $261 million package of tax incentives for the Revel Casino, the glittering centerpiece of an ambitious plan put forward by the governor to revitalize Atlantic City, the city’s newest casino announced earlier this week that it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy next month.
Tuesday’s announcement, coming only ten months after the casino opened for business, drew a quick response from Seth Grossman, Christie’s conservative challenger in the state’s June 4 Republican primary.
“The bankruptcy of the Revel casino today proves the total failure of the bi-partisan pay-to-play political culture that has crippled and corrupted the economy of New Jersey during the past 30 years,” Grossman said in a press release issued shortly after the announcement.
“During the past 30 years, Republicans and Democrats together raised income, sales, and property tax rates, gave us a whole bunch of new taxes, and passed dozens of new laws that make every business pay more for electricity, insurance, and lawyers,” said Grossman, a former Atlantic City councilman and Atlantic County freeholder who had officially declared his long-shot candidacy in front of the troubled, 48-story Revel Casino and hotel on February 12th.
Photo courtesy of Danny Drake, Atlantic City Press
“The result is crony capitalism,” continued Grossman. “It is now almost impossible for any business to succeed in New Jersey without getting some tax break or other special deal from the government. And the people who get those special deals are the folks with the best political connections — not those with the best talent or ideas.”
The Somers Point lawyer and self-styled fiscal watchdog saw this coming for a couple of years. Grossman, 63, had been an outspoken opponent of the tax incentives that allowed Revel to finish construction on the $2.4 billion beachfront resort.
“Two years ago, almost everyone in Atlantic City knew that the Revel project was the wrong casino, in the wrong place, and at the wrong time,” said Grossman, adding that thousands of Atlantic City residents had signed petitions demanding a vote on the tax breaks needed by the project according to state law, but their voices were ignored.
“The Revel Casino was only one of many crony capitalist projects in New Jersey made possible with financing from the New Jersey Economic Authority,” said Grossman, who emphasized that only about ten percent of New Jersey’s current $40 billion of indebtedness had been approved by the voters as required by Article 8, Section 2 of the state constitution.
“If I became governor, the first thing I would do is enforce that section of the Constitution to make sure that not a dime of tax money directly or indirectly bails out any bonds issued by any of those state agencies,” asserted Grossman.
“I know of no better way of ending New Jersey’s pay to play culture than to dry up the supply of unconstitutional borrowed money that is sustaining it,” he said.
Republican Governor Christie and the Democratic Legislature did not just “ignore” the “voices” of Atlantic City residents to give tax breaks to the Revel at the expense of every other taxpayer in town. They disenfranchised them by retroactively amended the statewide referendum law that denied Atlantic City residents their statutory right to force a public vote on the issue.
Pingback: revel, bankruptcy, Christie, Lesniak Seth Grossman
Rush Limbaugh says he’s embarrassed by the phony made up sequester drama, but that “crisis” is only a microcosm of a totally broken political system at all levels. Seth Grossman is right on the money and deserves more than long-shot status against the blowhard we elected with great hope to replace Jon Corzine. Chris Christie still enjoys high approval ratings, but then his policies haven’t been seriously challenged. It looks as though Seth Grossman will shake things up making voters ask some important questions.
If you believe in what Seth Grossman has to say and to contribute to salvaging New Jersey–and if you are a registered Republican or first-time voter in a primary election–then go to his website and download a petition to be signed by as many qualified supporters that you can muster out of voter’s apathy. SETH NEEDS SIGNATURES to get on the June 4th ballot and he needs them by April 1. Send a message to Trenton.