The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
The clock is ticking on city officials, who have five months to draft a five-year plan that includes a 2017 balanced budget or else face a state takeover. Christian Hetrick, Press of Atlantic City Read more
The warring tribes of Democrats in Trenton smoked a peace pipe on Thursday and tentatively agreed to rescue Atlantic City from bankruptcy at the last minute. Tom Moran, Star-Ledger Editorial Board Read more
As the two sides in the legislative debate over a state takeover of Atlantic City negotiate on a compromise between two dueling bills from Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) and Assembly Speaker Vince Prieto (D-32), the gaming capital’s state Senator said Monday that he places the blame squarely on the city’s shoulders for not approaching Sweeney with a counter-proposal weeks ago. Mayor Don Guardian and members of the city council have allied themselves with Prieto in pushing for two more years before the state takes over the city’s finances. JT Aregood, PolitickerNJ Read more
After one of the most turbulent weeks in New Jersey politics since the North Jersey casino expansion vote earlier this year, Atlantic City’s assets are one step closer to being sold off as part of a state takeover championed by Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3), Governor Chris Christie and South Jersey Democratic boss George Norcross III. Opposition to that takeover plan hit a major roadblock on Thursday as three state Assembly members stayed home, leading Speaker Vince Prieto (D-32) to delay posting his alternative takeover bill until he could secure a 41-vote majority. JT Aregood, PolitickerNJ Read more
The sun hadn’t risen yet when Don Guardian began his day at the Atlantic City public works yard. The mayor was facing the latest in a series of increasingly dire fiscal deadlines, and had just days to make a decision whether to make an $1.8 million interest payment on municipal bonds. If he and his advisors decided that shoring up day-to-day spending on the police and fire department and public infrastructure trumped their obligations to creditors, the city would be the first in New Jersey to default on its loans since the Great Depression. JT Aregood, PolitickerNJ Read more
The last time a New Jersey municipality defaulted on its debt, Franklin D. Roosevelt was president, the U.S. was in the middle of the Great Depression, and World War II was still about a year away. Brent Johnson, NJ.com Read more
As the debate continues over how to save Atlantic City from its financial crisis, a city councilman is proposing that the mayor, fellow council members and other local officials help out by taking a 20 percent pay cut. Brent Johnson, NJ.com Read more
The deadlock between Gov. Chris Christie and elected officials over a deal to rescue Atlantic City from a mounting financial crisis has the potential to send shockwaves through some of the state’s largest cities, a credit agency said Wednesday. Matt Arco, NJ.com Read more
Guardian Asks for Assembly Support for PILOT Bill
Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian spoke at Monday’s meeting of the Assembly Budget Committee in Trenton to voice his opposition to the state takeover effort. The Assembly will be the determining factor now that the takeover package from Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) has cleared the Senate. Assembly Speaker Vince Prieto (D-32) has said that he objects to allowing the state broad powers in altering collective bargaining agreements and may not put the bill to a vote. JT Aregood, PolitickerNJ Read more
Eleven cities in New Jersey, and two counties, have a higher proportion of young children with dangerous lead levels than Flint, Mich., does, according to New Jersey and Michigan statistics cited by a community advocacy group. Ben Horowitz, NJ.comRead more
Expanding gaming to North Jersey could force more casinos to close in Atlantic City, Moody’s Investors Service warned Wednesday, adding that such a result would increase the likelihood that the ratings agency would downgrade the resort town’s credit. Andrew Seidman, Inquirer Read more
PJ in Atlantic City
Meanwhile NJ Taxpayers can not even get New Jersey Division of Taxation to respond to a phone call ?
When United Airlines abruptly cancelled service out of Atlantic City last year after only eight months, the airline was on the hook to repay $104,000 in public subsidies provided in exchange for a promise to run flights to the struggling casino town for at least one year. Shawn Boburg, The Record Read more
JULY 27, 2015, 8:58 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2015, 8:17 AM
BY SALVADOR RIZZO
STATE HOUSE BUREAU |
THE RECORD
Donald Trump, a lifelong New Yorker, has been on a 30-year mission to blanket New Jersey with his self-named businesses. It’s a story that has been perplexing and awe-inspiring, infuriating and romantic — sometimes all at once.
What began in the 1980s with a few casinos in Atlantic City soon became a grand tour in which Trump registered 41 businesses in the state; submitted plans for a massive golf community in southern Bergen County and a mega-mall in Paramus; came up with four different ideas for Trump amusement parks; hosted Mike Tyson boxing matches and concerts by Bob Dylan and Michael Jackson; ferried passengers to his casinos on his own airline; and developed three golf courses.
The golf courses were huge successes. And the casinos had a solid run in the 1980s and the early 1990s. But there was also the wreckage: plans that went nowhere, casinos that faltered, deals that fell through and developments that were rejected by state officials.
Red-wig suspect in robbery of Glen Rock bank arrested in Atlantic City
MARCH 5, 2015, 9:23 PM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2015, 9:35 PM
BY JIM NORMAN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
The mysterious woman who is suspected of hiding her identity under a bright red wig to hold up the Glen Rock Savings Bank last month was arrested in Atlantic City by the FBI on Thursday, authorities told The Record.
No details of the arrest were provided, and the name of the woman was not revealed, but law enforcement sources confirmed that her crime wave – which also allegedly took her to the scene of a holdup at the Greenwich Bank & Trust Co. in Greenwich, Conn., on Jan. 30 – was at an end.
“Yeah, they got her,” said one law enforcement source who asked not to be identified because the chief investigative agency in the case was the FBI and not local police departments. “It’s a good pinch,” the source said.
The woman got away with more than $100,000 in the Glen Rock holdup after brandishing a large, long-barreled handgun that authorities later said was a paintball gun.
In the earlier stick-up in Greenwich, authorities said security video showed that the woman did not wear a wig at that time, but appeared have dark hair cut in a short style, and appeared to use the same gun. The amount that she took in Greenwich has never been revealed, but was believed to be far less than the haul in Glen Rock, a source said.
Glen Rock police had described the robber as about 5-foot-7, of medium build and wearing a black coat and white boots. As she ran out of the bank, the woman dropped the weapon nearby.
In Greenwich, police said the robber had the same build and had worn a dark coat and light-colored boots.
New Jersey governor to hire emergency manager for Atlantic City
(Reuters) – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will install an emergency manager in Atlantic City to assume control of the struggling gambling hub, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The Journal, citing an unnamed senior administration official, reported that Christie is expected to announce hiring corporate restructuring attorney Kevin Lavin to handle the city’s strained finances and daily operations on Thursday.
The Journal also said Christie would bring in Kevyn Orr, the restructuring lawyer who led Detroit through itsbankruptcy as the city’s emergency manager, as a part-time consultant to the recovery effort. (Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/
