Atlantic City officials waited for another week as the city’s fiscal fate was being negotiated in the New Jersey Legislature, but a talked about compromise plan still has not emerged.
Two plans have been proposed to save the city, which faces about a $60 million budget gap and is more than $500 million in debt.
One approved in the state Senate would have the state takeover virtually all city finances for five years after giving the city 130 days to make serious financial cuts. The other plan—proposed in the state Assembly but not voted on—would give the city two years to meet financial goals or the state takes over the city’s finances incrementally.
The main sticking point has been the insistence by state Assembly Leader Vincent Prieto that the state not be given the power to dissolve the city’s union contracts, which the Senate plan allows.
That difference has set off a sharp battle between Prieto and Senate president Stephen Sweeney and Governor Chris Christie.
Then came news of a possible compromise that would give the city 150 days to draft a plan to make cuts to the city’s budget and then one year to implement the plan.
It’s unclear what would happen with the union contracts if the state did eventually take over the city under the compromise.
Lawmakers have been talking and meeting about the compromise for more than a week, but no agreement has been announced.
Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald told NJ Advance Media that a draft of the compromise measure has been circulating among Democratic leaders, but would not outline details because he’s doesn’t want to jeopardize an agreement.
“I’ve seen this thing fall apart too many times,” Greenwald told the news service. “It’s been a long struggle. Hopefully this has come to an end.”
Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian, who has opposed the state’s takeover of the city and supported Prieto’s plan, has said the tentative compromise deal would be something the city “can live with.”
“The period of time for us to be able come up with the plan—very reasonable,” Guardian told the Press of Atlantic City. “The one year till the end of 2017 to actually implement that plan — I think that’s tough but also reasonable. The question is going to be the dollar value.”
Guardian said it would be impossible to cut the city’s $262 million budget in half—which Sweeney and Christie have said needs to happen—in just one year, but said he will try to work towards the goal.
He also said the budget is already down to $225 million in 2016. The city’s full-time workforce has been reduced from 1,255 to 904 since he took office, and salaries are down $5.6 million from last year, he told the Press.
But again, just how close to a deal lawmakers are depends on who you talk to. Sweeney, for example, told the news service “we don’t have an agreement on anything,” but said talks are continuing.
Christie, meanwhile, has said he would support a compromise as long as it doesn’t hinge toward Prieto’s bill.
In an example of the effect the delay is having, the Atlantic City Alliance—a casino funded marketing arm of the city—has begun spending money on promotions and advertising campaigns. Previous attempts at a rescue plan would have diverted the group’s $30 million budget to the city for two years and disbanded the group.
Since no plan was passed, the city is out $60 million it expected and the group continues to market the city, though its director has resigned.
