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Promoted from the diaries by Rosi
Our government should start getting rid of the NJ Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSAEA) albatross.
Someone said, "Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome." For years the NJSAEA has expanded its investments into the Meadowlands complex, Monmouth Park Racetrack, and the AC and Wildwoods Convention Centers. The result: NJSAEA currently holds $830 million in debt, faces a deficit this year of $38 million, and is requesting from the state $30 million to meet its shortfall. NJSAEA is now pleading for slots machines at its racetracks and hopes for gambling at Xanadu.
During Senate hearings the NJS&EA President Dennis Robinson said that its "debt load reflects poor choices by past governors and lawmakers." Actually our current governor recently appointed his former colleague Ralph Marra as Senior Vice President for Legal and Governmental Affairs with a 25% salary increase to $190,000. Marra has been criticized on several counts for improperly having used the federal prosecutor's office to further Christie's campaign.
Indeed past governors and lawmakers have treated the authority as their toy box. Political interference has including a bloated staff of political appointees, free tickets and catered meals to favored politicians, poorly negotiated contracts with football, basketball, and hockey franchises, bad decisions regarding Xanadu, and insistence on perpetuating the money-losing race track business.
Robinson also says there is a long-term future for the agency. Really? With accounting statements "in such disarray they could not be trusted," their race tracks bleeding huge sums, their infusion of capital from Xanadu nearing an end, ongoing debt on the former Giants stadium and Izod Arena, the NJ Devils long gone to Newark, the NJ Nets soon to follow, and questions raised about their contract with concert promoter Live Nation - where is the long-term future we can believe in?
Sports economists "have shown time and time again that the rosy estimates of economic benefits put forward by sports boosters are at odds with actual economic data." We like our professional sports and we want to keep them, but other states have their own teams and have not pandered as much to team owners nor allowed their government to so mismanage the business.
As with companies that have a failed business model, the government should begin to find other operators, sell off its assets, close down facilities where necessary, and disengage from the sports, exposition and entertainment business. Other non-governmental operators could run these facilities and be more successful. If some were to lose money it would not be a drain on our state's treasury. There are other far more pressing needs in NJ. It's time to stop. "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."
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