Following is the Americans for Prosperity – New Jersey Chapter update on the proposed Morgan Stanley / Revel bailout:

____________________________________________________________

Once again, New Jersey taxpayers are being thrown under the bus by Trenton lawmakers in favor of their corporate and big union special interests.

This time, the Trenton politicians are primed to use your money to bail out Morgan Stanley’s failing Revel Casino project in Atlantic City.

Last year, thanks to the federal bailout of the major financial institutions through TARP (the Troubled Asset Relief Program), Morgan Stanley received a hefty $10 BILLION. On top of that, the firm received $52 MILLION from local taxpayers. Now, they are demanding another $350 MILLION in tax breaks to fund the completion of their failing Revel Casino project.

Morgan Stanley is predicting that their casino will rake in $1.5 BILLION in profits in just the first five years. Yet now they are seeking even more from New Jersey taxpayers – who have had enough of bailouts and sky high taxes in this state – when they should be funding this project themselves.

For more information, visit www.NoMorganStanleyBailout.org.

This is by no means the first time Trenton has sunk tax dollars into AC in misguided attempts to improve the city’s poor financial condition. Seth Grossman of www.LibertyandProsperity.org, in a piece in Shore News Today, highlights past failures that have doomed AC and wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

In 1993, big corporations and big unions got big government to borrow $268 million for a new Atlantic City Convention Center far from the Boardwalk. In 1998, big government borrowed $90 million to fix the old Boardwalk Hall for Miss America and a new pro hockey team ? both long gone.

Then there was $170 million for an eminent-domain-based “corridor” to connect the two projects, followed by millions more in tax breaks, free parking garages, etc. to a private shopping mall developer.

The government borrowed $100 million to improve privately owned stores on the Boardwalk and $14.5 million for a baseball stadium. It “persuaded” three casinos to add $19 million to $11.8 million of taxpayer money for the ACES train fiasco that lost $6 million in just five months.

The baseball stadium is like an old Roman ruin, while the two new convention halls lose millions each year, and together have fewer events than the old one.

Only the corridor stores at The Walk are a “success” ? until you realize that all their business came from all the now-dead shopping malls in the rest of the county.

These projects not only failed, but they caused Atlantic City to fail. The 1.25 percent CRDA “skim” on all casino winnings that paid for these failures could have cut taxes for everyone in the county. But even this money wasn’t enough. Republicans and Democrats hit Atlantic City tourists with a bunch of new “casino redevelopment” taxes that even I can’t follow.

They include a 13 percent tax on hotel rooms, an extra 3 percent liquor tax, a $3 casino garage parking tax, a 9 percent luxury tax on other stuff, another $3 casino hotel tax, etc.

Many travel websites now warn tourists of these Atlantic City “rip-offs” ? another unintended consequence when politicians borrow and tax to “create jobs.”

Atlantic City is in big trouble. Nobody can afford to build anything new. But this is because construction worker unions are too greedy, government permits are too expensive and hard to get, and state and local taxes are too high.

Now, Trenton is poised to repeat the same mistakes yet again. Atlantic City is in such dire straits directly as a result of this kind of government interference and special interest sellouts. Subsidizing the Revel project with our tax dollars will only push other struggling casinos out of business.

Worse yet, the Revel Casino bailout is already being pushed through the Legislature (bill S-920/A-1897). Republicans and Democrats have locked arms on this bill, with a Senate panel unanimously approving the measure 7-0 earlier this week. Members of this panel include Republic Senators Joe Kyrillos (R-13), Robert Singer (R-30), Steven Oroho (R-24) and Democrat Senators Ray Lesniak (D-20), Sandra Cunningham (D-31), Richard Codey (D-27) and Joseph Vitale (D-19).

Other lawmakers are also supporting this bailout, among them are Republican Congressman Frank LoBiondo, Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson, and D-rated Assemblymen Vincent Polistina (R-02) and John Amodeo (R-02).

This is not the kind of change the people of New Jersey were expecting with the new Christie Administration now in place. We need to stand up and tell these legislators to stop with this nonsense. We need to tell them we’ve had enough with their spending, borrowing and fiscal mismanagement of our state’s resources and that we expect them to OPPOSE this bill.

CLICK HERE to find the contact information for your legislator.
CLICK HERE to contact Governor Christie.

AFP will be key voting this bill and will let you know when it is coming up before the full Senate and Assembly.

Morgan Stanley Bailout · Revel Bailout · seth grossman