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Atlantic City Tourism Plan Further Delayed by Opposing Plans

Posted on November 15th, 2010

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July 2011 is the supposed target date for the lock that would reinstate Atlantic City’s position as a tourist resort. The city has been held back for years as worsening economic conditions have lessened visitor arrivals, particularly in its gambling halls. However, in the third quarter of the year, the governor of the state announced some big plans to rejuvenate the city, including the creation of a super-organization that is tasked to supervise the city, from regulating its gambling industry to giving allocations to improve some of its areas. Even the legislature dominated by Democrats has been preparing a package in conjunction with the Republican governor’s plan. In the tourism zone, which has under it the Boardwalk and casinos, policing would be more enforced.

However, the two major political parties are still far from agreeing, and they have only barely a month left from the holidays. Both camps have drafted blueprints for their plans for the city, and both blueprints have a lot of differences. Last Thursday, the Democrats have set a schedule for a Senate committee hearing on Monday, giving them the edge to make their draft plan to carve out a tourism zone more popular than the other side. According to their plan, the organization that should be in charge of the tourism district would be the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. This area is the main difference between their plan and the plan of Gov. Chris Christie.

Republicans have admitted that both camps – the senate, headed by its President Stephen Sweeney (D-Salem, Gloucester, Cumberland), and the governor have reached an agreement that something needs to be done for the additional state involvement. However, they also knew that there were a number of differences in each camp’s details. But they were not expecingt the differencesto be pushed through in writing instead of being ironed out first Sweeney has been known to be in frequent meetings with Christie, supposedly to reach an agreement with some details of the issue. He had also given statements that they are getting closer to finding a solution than everyone else would assume. However, the hearing on Monday looks like there will be more talk on the differences of the two plans, and less on the agreements.

For months, partisanship has caused delays which could have been easily avoided. The Democrats on their part have held summits since the summer until September on how to remedy not just the gaming industry, but also the endangered horse-racing business. The Democrats’ bill will be discussed by the Senate Committee on State Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation of New Jersey in the Statehouse in Trenton. Also mentioned in the plans are infrastructure improvements for the region that include transportation options like airport, rail and ferry. On the other hand, the governor’s draft is designed to focus on “enticing new entrants to build both gaming and nongaming attractions that will increase demand in the city.” The camp gave an example that they want to include the development of a facility that will host sports and extreme sports activities.

The governor is expecting the regulatory cost-cutting to add $20 million every year to be funneled to the district, with an additional $30 million annually, used to be allocated by the casinos to support the horse-racing industry, to be retained. Mark Juliano, Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority member and former chief executive officer of Trump Entertainment, commented, “A lot of that money will be earmarked into an image campaign where we talk about the great things Atlantic City has and try to overcome the perception that people might have of the city.”

Whether the two camps will continue to disagree or finally reach an agreement the soonest, one thing is clear: they need to act soon or get clobbered by the competition brought by the neighboring casinos that more or less get their customer base from the same area. Juliano further explained, “We don’t have a monopoly anymore, so you have to give people a multitude of reasons to come. The competition in other states is essentially slot machines at racetracks and some free-standing casinos.”