It could be one of the most consequential days for Atlantic City in decades.
State lawmakers on Thursday are due to cast votes on a financial aid package for the struggling seaside gambling resort, incorporating changes demanded by Gov. Chris Christie, who vetoed the bills last month. They'll also vote on even more consequential plans to ask voters whether to approve two new casinos in the northern part of the state.
Taken together, the measures could go a long way toward determining how Atlantic City fares over the coming decades, and could radically change the gambling landscape in the state.
First up are dueling plans in the Senate and Assembly authorizing a referendum on expanding casinos to northern New Jersey. The bills have two important differences: the Senate version would restrict the new licenses to companies that already own an Atlantic City casino; the Assembly would open one of those licenses to outside companies. And they allocate different amounts of the gambling tax revenue the new casinos would generate to Atlantic City: 49 percent in the Senate bill and 35 percent in the Assembly version.
Those versions would have to be reconciled into a single bill that the Legislature would need to approve. The referendum would be on amending the state Constitution, which currently restricts casino gambling to Atlantic City. Though no locations are spelled out in either bill, the most commonly mentioned proposals for new casinos are at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, and in Jersey City.
Later in the afternoon, the Assembly plans to take up part of the Atlantic City rescue package Christie conditionally vetoed last month because he didn't think it asked enough accountability and structural change from the city, given the relief it would get.
The key measure is the so-called PILOT bill, for payment in lieu of taxes. It would let Atlantic City's eight casinos make specified payments for 15 years instead of property taxes. The casinos would be able to predict their costs, and would be prohibited from appealing their taxes — something they have done to devastating effect on the city's finances in recent years.
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
Christie's main demand is that the $30 million a year that would have continued to fund the soon-to-be-defunct Atlantic City Alliance, which helped market the resort, be held by the state for two years until the city adopts a financial reform package acceptable to the state. The money would have gone straight to the city under the original version of the bill.
This all comes as Atlantic City's casinos struggle to find a new equilibrium following a bone-rattling 2014 in which four of its 12 casinos went out of business. The city itself also continues to struggle with budget woes and rising taxes that have some analysts predicting a bankruptcy filing in the not-so-distant future.
