Atlantic City, Trump Resorts play for time

Atlantic City can breathe a little easier: It’s bought a year’s reprieve from a ballot question which would revoke its casino monopoly.
Technically, it could still get done if the Legislature votes it through by August 30. But it has to pass both houses by supermajorities, must be subject to a public hearing and has to sit on the legislative calendar for 20 days. All this, plus the opposition of state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D) means the issue is dead for 2015. “I wish it was never going to be on, but at some point I think it will be on the ballot. Given the polling information, I’m not sure it will pass,” said state Sen. James Whelan (D above), who represents the Boardwalk.

Whelan and others believe the issue would get more attention from voters if part of an off-year election. Sweeney, an advocate of expansion, prefers 2016 because the presidential election will draw more of the electorate to the ballot box, but his opponents say the casino question will get lost in all the other electoral noise.

* Speaking of dead things in Atlantic City, Trump Entertainment Resorts wants to put a 10-year deed of restriction on Trump Plaza, precluding reopening it as a casino resort for a decade. (This is the same Trump Resorts that got all shirty about the Showboat becoming a campus for Stockton University, ruining that promising idea.) The move is a tax dodge, so that Trump doesn’t have to make annual payments on the property under the new, PILOT program — of which more below. Trump is one of several casino companies appealing its recent property-tax assessments. CEO Robert Griffin has also booby-trapped the property for prospective buyers by imposing a “release fee” to get the deed removed. The move has the blessing of prospective owner Carl Icahn, although what he intends to do with this white elephant is unclear.

* When Perry Christie, prime minister of the Bahamas, turned up at the groundbreaking for Resorts World Las Vegas, it fueled speculation that Genting Group is going to take over troubled metaresort Baha Mar. The $3.5 million project has filed for bankruptcy and is suing contractor China Construction America for failing to complete Baha Mar, which is 97% finished. The issue has some urgency in the Bahamas, where the metaresort is projected to provide 12% of the Bahamanian gross domestic product. Charging China America with inexperience (in which case, why was it ever hired?), the lawsuit accuses that it “agreed to hire more than two dozen top-level personnel from Las Vegas with experience constructing projects similar to the project. Less than a dozen such people were ultimately hired, however, and all but a few of them had left the project within a year.”

* A New Jersey appeals court put a big hurt on Atlantic City’s finances. It upheld Borgata‘s contention that it was overvalued by a billion dollars, meaning that Mayor Don Guardian (R) will have to pony up $60 million in tax refunds for 2009 and 2010. The significance of the ruling was downplayed by Borgata CEO Tom Ballance, who told The Press of Atlantic City, “We didn’t want to be involved in this at all, but the city overcharged us.” He says he’s more concerned by the city’s apparent unwillingness to hold negotiations regarding property-tax refunds. The issue of property taxes will soon be moot if Gov. Chris Christie (R) puts his signature to a bill replacing them with annual, fixed-sum payments.

* Now that he’s broadcasting for Fox Sports One, disgraced baseball star Pete Rose has adopted a ludicrous, jet-black dye job that gives him a scary resemblance to Sheldon Adelson. Since the latter is famously preoccupied with his personal safety, perhaps he could hire Rose to act as a decoy. The pay would be pretty good, I’m sure.