By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
“It gets worse every day. And I have not — in my career — seen anything to match this,” said Charles Richman.
That brutal assessment of Atlantic City’s collapsing fortunes came from the man whose department has monitored the almost-bankrupt town for six years and would take charge if the state takes over. Richman heads New Jersey’s Department of Community Affairs. Today he faced frustrated Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo.
“How did we end up here in 2016, in the situation that we’re in, when DCA and local government services, since the beginning of the Christie administration, was working? How did we end up where we are today?” Sarlo asked.
Richman explained, the state two years ago had requested Atlantic City implement budget cuts and fiscal reforms, in return for $13 million in transitional aid. But when the city didn’t follow through, Richman said, “We don’t have the ability under any of the existing statutes to then go in and actually make the changes that have to take place.”
Richman said when Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s downgraded Atlantic City’s bond rating and its financial instability could taint other towns’ ability to borrow.
Predictably, senators didn’t skewer Richman; after all, the Senate’s already passed Sen. Steve Sweeney’s Atlantic City takeover bill — the only one Gov. Chris Christie supports — and Richman, of course, prefers.
“We want to get in there, make the tough decisions that have to be made, and then turn the city back over to the people of Atlantic City. But it’s going to take an effort greater than the Atlantic City government to achieve what has to be achieved,” Richman said.
But Sweeney’s bill stalled in the Assembly — opposed by Speaker Vincent Prieto, who’s proposed a less aggressive takeover that preserves union contracts. Despite several meetings, the two leaders can’t find a compromise. And last night, an aggravated Gov. Christie noted the impasse puts a North Jersey gaming initiative at risk.
“That’s about 6,000 construction jobs and about 12,000 new hospitality and gaming jobs they’ve flushed down the toilet. How much more damage is the speaker going to do with his ego?” Christie asked.
Atlantic City’s financial dilemma and its impact on other towns continues to drive political discussion, but any more toward a resolution? Not in the cards today.