By David Cruz
Correspondent
In Don Guardian, Atlantic City may have found the pitchman it needs to help it emerge from its current crisis. Slightly quirky and possessing of a nervous energy, Guardian is becoming the face of a city hell-bent on recovery. This week he’s talking up his plan to start that process.
“Six years ago, over $20 billion was the assessed value of property [in Atlantic City],” explained the mayor. “This year it went down to $11.2 billion and I think almost any expert will agree that we’re going to go down an additional $4 billion before it stabilizes.”
And that’s meant a whopping 53 percent tax increase for homeowners. Guardian’s plan targets tax stability by putting the remaining casinos here on a predictable payment in lieu of taxes regime and cuts to municipal staff in almost all the city’s departments including police and fire. That’s not too different from the plans being floated by the governor’s task force on the future of the city. But one thing the mayor’s plan does not propose is an emergency city manager. That, says the mayor, who already has a state monitor approving every hire and purchase in the city, is a non-starter.
“That questions the whole Democratic process,” he said. “The election of elected officials. It really puts everything in jeopardy. I mean it sounds like martial law.”
The mayor says he’s counting on Trenton to help, and this week the Assembly passed a series of bills aimed at helping the city get back on its feet. The bills allow for the city to put off pension payments for three years and will redirect $30 million from the Atlantic City Alliance — the Do AC people — into city coffers.
“If we don’t do anything now to stabilize our taxes what’s going to happen? Nobody’s going to live here, nobody can sell their homes, nobody can invest here,” said Assemblyman Vincent Mazzeo, who sits on the Tourism, Gaming and the Arts Committee where the bills were considered. “So, we have to stabilize our property taxes before we do anything and that’s what these bills are intended to do.”
One of the more intriguing ideas for the boardwalk is centered at the Showboat Casino and Hotel where, starting next spring, Stockton College will open a new campus. That might not seem like a natural fit to some but others think it’s just the kind of outside the casino thinking this city needs.
Stockton would double the size of its campus, with rooms for 800 students, space for new and existing programs, a gaming floor that will be converted to administrative and instructional use and entertainment and resort facilities that rival universities twice Stockton’s size. And, of course, there’s the Atlantic City boardwalk and beach.
“It needs a shot in the arm but it’s also the right time for the shot in the arm,” said Stockton President Henry Saatkamp, Jr. “This is my seventh effort to build a campus in Atlantic City and, in a way, I’m pleased that the others did not work because this is by far the best opportunity that we have.”
Local 54 President Bob McDevitt said he welcomes Stockton’s move. “I never thought of Atlantic City as a college town but certainly a place this small, the impact of Stockton if they bring their plan forward with thousands of kids living here and going to classes, it’s going to have an impact on the city and a positive one.”
Casino workers are still reeling from losing thousands of jobs, although sources say a deal to save 2,000 jobs at the Taj is close. And just because the mayor’s a good cheerleader doesn’t mean vacationers, conventioneers, shoppers and sun worshipers are going to flock back to AC. The city is still on its heels but help, from a number of sources, appears to be on the way.