Wed Feb 17, 2010 at 02:30:00 PM EST
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The financial rescue of an Atlantic City Casino has created an interesting pairing bringing splitting Labor and bringing a one union together with the Tea party:The casino workers' union, Unite HERE, and Americans for Prosperity are allied, along with the local conservative group Liberty and Prosperity 1776, behind a "No Morgan Stanley Bailout" campaign, an effort to cast plans for a state rescue of the half-built Revel casino as a bailout of the Morgan Stanley, the investment house that is reportedly the casino's main investor. They union already has launched the website nomorganstanleybailout.org to highlight their opposition to the tax break the City is giving Revel on the proposed $2.5 billion casino project. This isn't UNITE Here's first attempt to stop the planned tax break. They sought to put the $300 million on the ballot as a referendum question but Atlantic City Officials rejected the unions petitions. Senator Lesniak got a bill passed unanimously through committee at the beginning of this Legislative session which would protect the tax break from a public vote as well. Here is the plan for the tax breaks:The plan would require Revel to pay just 25 percent of its sales and room taxes over its first 20 years of operation, scheduled to start in 2011. Revel officials have called the funding "an important factor" in securing financing to complete its $2 billion megaresort. Follow me below the fold for more on how the tax break came to be, who else is opposing and who is supporting the plan. |
| Jason Springer :: Politics makes strange bedfellows as parts of Labor and the Tea Party come together |
Here's more about how the Revel tax break came to be:Revel is the first project to apply for New Jersey's tax-reimbursement program under provisions of a broad-ranging state economic-stimulus bill Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law last year.
One provision of the economic-stimulus act allows developers whose proposals meet certain criteria to receive up to 75 percent of the tax revenue created by their projects for up to 20 years. But the state doesn't actually receive the tax revenues that go into the break if the project weren't completed. It's not a clear cut case of all Labor joining in the opposition though as the plan has the support of other local unions:Revel's proposed tax abatements continued to gain support from other unions heads Thursday. Roy Foster, president of the Atlantic-Cape May County AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, said he fully supports the tax proposal because his members "need to work."
"There's nowhere left to go," Foster said, referring to new jobs in Atlantic City. But the Politico article contains a note at the end saying the planned Casino hasn't promised to use union labor, though both Revel and McDevitt have denied the claim. Along with joining arms with the tea party, trying to get a referendum on the ballot and launching the website, the Union is also planning to head to court and file a lawsuit. While all of this goes on, the biggest change in the project may be that of the new man in the Governor's mansion. Christie has not sounded very supportive of the Revel tax break:"I heard about that this morning," Christie said. "It's interesting that they're looking for a tax break. I don't know that's something that's necessary. I would be skeptical about that. I don't want to say no outright, but I'm going to be Missouri on that one - they're going to have to show me why that's absolutely necessary and convince me. So paint me skeptical on that." This could be the latest flash point in the battle between the Legislature and the Executive branch. Christie has already shown a willingness to involved himself in Atlantic City affairs threatening to allow VLT's if they didn't clean things up after a recent critical audit. Revel has already suspended interior work until the financing for the project is secured. And then even if Revel does get the tax break, you still have the problem of additional struggling casinos in Atlantic City. AC Casinos have seen 17 straight months of declines in gaming revenues. Revel isn't going to be able to revive the city alone. In fact some would argue it could lead to the end of some of the already struggling casinos. |
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