By Michael Aron
Chief Political Correspondent
You wouldn’t know it from the quick hearing it got today, but the issue of what to do about casinos in North Jersey has become the biggest political fight in the state.
Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto of Secaucus is trying to pass his version of a constitutional amendment authorizing two new gaming halls in the North. His ally in the fight is Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, who is a likely 2017 gubernatorial candidate.
Meanwhile, Senate President Steve Sweeney of Gloucester County, another likely 2017 candidate, is pushing a different version of the constitutional amendment.
The two sides have reached an impasse.
“I don’t know why, for the life of me, that I’m actually fighting. I, from South Jersey, am fighting to build two casinos in North Jersey against New Jersey legislators from Hudson County. Nowhere else,” Sweeney said.
The issue reverberates on three different political axes — North versus South, Senate versus Assembly and Sweeney versus Fulop.
Both houses have missed the deadline for merging their bills into one and getting it passed in the current legislative session, which expires on Tuesday.
“Because of the way constitutional amendments are set forth, we can’t compromise and amend either bill. It’s either the Assembly bill or the Senate bill,” Senator Paul Sarlo said.
There are two big differences between the bills.
The Senate says both North Jersey casinos have to be majority-owned by current Atlantic City casino operators. The Assembly has one Atlantic City operator and one new or out-of-state owner operating the other one.
The Senate version kicks off more tax revenue to private redevelopment in Atlantic City than the Assembly version. The Senate sends 50 percent to Atlantic City, the Assembly 50 percent of the first $300 million, then down to 35 percent.
“What frustrates me is that we are at this impasse over a handful of very, very small items. I’ve been in this legislature 14 years, I’ve been talking about this for 14 years. We are so close, but it seems like we’re so far away,” Sarlo said.
“I think the Sweeney bill is the better bill as I understand it. The fact is if we’re going to go back and forth and fight over this territory, this political war that’s a foreshadowing of 2017, I think it’s disgusting and disgraceful,” Senator Kevin O’Toole said.
Opponents of both measures, like Cape May County Senator Jeff Van Drew, warns that New Jersey is about to cannibalize its own gaming industry. Casinos, he says, are all South Jersey has.
“We don’t have the high-tech industry, the manufacturing industry, we don’t have Big Pharma or the financial industry,” Van Drew said. “We don’t have the opportunity that other parts of the state do. So while this is a nice little sideline, if you will, for them, and this is something that’s neat, for us it’s life and death.”
The argument for keeping new casinos in the hands of existing Atlantic City casino operators is that it would keep the industry unified.
“It’s very important to have them connected so you can cross-market with your comps and all those other things,” Sweeney said.
With the disagreement in place, it looks like the issue will be kicked into the next legislative session, which begins Tuesday. At that point it’ll take a 3/5th majority in each house to get the North Jersey casino amendment onto the 2016 ballot. That should be possible with the help of North Jersey Republicans. They have until August to get it done.