-->
NJBIZ STAFF//September 17, 2012//
Atlantic City – WINNER Tony Mack – LOSER Honeywell – WINNER Pension funds – LOSER Port Authority – WINNER Michael Bloomberg – LOSER
Given the Irene-related closures last August, plus the addition of Revel, this was a tap-in, but the city did see gaming revenue increase. And the Margaritaville project cleared a few hurdles, as well. Now, we wait to see how the city fares during the off season.
In some states, Mack’s arrest on a corruption charge probably warrants a full loser column all its own. In New Jersey, he’s simply a footnote in our long, proud history of public corruption. The welcome basket from Sharpe James and Pete Cammarano is already in the mail.
Successfully held the state hostage twice — in 2010, New Jersey expanded the BRRAG incentive just to keep it here, and last week, it got a Grow New Jersey incentive after again threatening to leave. At this point, it’s a matter of when the company adds the Jolly Roger to its logo.
A Star-Ledger report found a hedge fund managing $200 million in public pension money also has a stake in the woebegone Revel casino. Treasury insists the risk is tiny, which must be a relief to future retirees who know how poorly the state has kept its end of the funding bargain.
The bistate agency successfully negotiated an agreement to restart work on the Sept. 11 museum. It’s good news, but like the office tower still under construction more than a decade later, it’s hard to believe this isn’t already complete and open to the public.
The mayor was the one holding the microphone and forced to defend the $60 million annual upkeep of the city’s Sept. 11 memorial as a necessity, because those assault-rifle-wielding guards don’t come cheap. And now you know why New York needs a soda tax.