Is Governor Christie Taking Over Atlantic City?

Atlantic City is in one of the worst economic and financial crisis it has ever seen. With casinos closing all over the city, the unemployment rate consistently rising, and with Atlantic City being on the verge of bankruptcy, Governor Christie has used an executive order to appoint a crisis management team to help Atlantic City. Is this really what is needed for this city? Is this more of a publicity ploy for Christie possible presidential campaign in 2016? Or is it something that likes of the city of Detroit inevitably needed, restructuring and bankruptcy?

Governor Christie’s Executive Order on Atlantic City

Chris Christie has used an executive order to implement a crisis management team, which includes Kevin Lavin that is a corporate finance lawyer along with Keyvan Orr, the lawyer who led Detroit through the bankruptcy it emerged from last year, their debt was shed by $7 billion from over $18 billion. Their main objective is to help Atlantic City’s mayor oversee the restructuring and possible bankruptcy of the city. A major concern though for Mayor Guardian and city officials is that, it would make solution more difficult and just add another layer of bureaucracy. Christie though said, he could not “wait any longer.” He said that “more aggressive action” was needed, and that “it’s time to confront the dire circumstances.” (NYTIMES). Since the first weeks of Christie coming up with this plan, the mayor has since changed his outlook and agreeing that it could have real advantages in the short and long run.

Atlantic City is in serious trouble and everyone knows it, many people believe Christie is using this as a ploy to gain publicity for his future campaigns. Personally I see it as something that needs to be done. Seeing the way the city’s economic struggles have continued, it won’t change unless something like this is implemented or there are drastic changes. Just over the past 8 years casino revenue has dropped approximately 50%, which is due to the growth in markets and legalization of gambling in neighboring states such as Pennsylvania and New York. To make things worse the city has lost 4 of its 12 casinos, due to this Atlantic City’s property tax revenue, which it relies heavily has dropped from $20 billion to 11.3 billion to a projected low in 2016 of $8 billion.

What’s in Store for Atlantic City

No one knows for sure exactly what is going to happen within the next few months and years. There are plans that the Governor, Orr, Lavin, and Mayor Guardian have begun discussing but without a specific plan in place. Rumors have been floating around through due to Orr’s past experience in similar situations such as Detroit and filing the city for Bankruptcy. Most people think this is the inevitable solution, but many think this has deep ramifications to municipal services, employees, labor contracts and creditors. It should be a very interesting few months leading up to the decisions and actions of the crisis management team put together by Christie.