Governor’s Action Necessary Pending Legislative Resolution on Horse Racing Recommendations
Trenton, NJ – Governor Chris Christie today vetoed the New Jersey Racing Commission’s establishment of a full standardbred and thoroughbred racing schedule for Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands, as the Administration continues its review of recommendations to end annual taxpayer subsidies for the horse racing industry and make it self-sustaining.
The Racing Commission’s action at its November 10 meeting establishing a full race schedule for 2011 conflicts with the primary recommendation contained in a supplemental report under review by the Administration to substantially reduce the number of live racing days at Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands Racetrack for next year. At the November 10 meeting, the Racing Commission approved a request from the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to establish the full race meeting schedule for next year.
Governor Christie’s veto is not critical of the Commission or the NJSEA for doing what is currently statutorily required, as the Administration is considering scaled-down race meets among possible solutions for making the horse racing industry self-sustaining. The Governor’s veto was necessary pending a legislative resolution on horse racing recommendations and solutions.
“While the recommendation is being reviewed, it would be inappropriate to approve the NJSEA’s request to race 141 Thoroughbred races dates at Monmouth Park and 141 Standardbred races dates at the Meadowlands Racetrack particularly in light of the taxpayer subsidies required to sustain such a lengthy race calendar,” Governor Christie said in his veto letter, dated today.
“An appropriate solution for the state-owned racetracks, which does not unduly burden the taxpayers of this State, must be reached before a schedule for the 2011 racing season can be approved,” the Governor wrote.
Voters in Manasquan will go back to the polls in January to choose a member of their Borough Council, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press.
On election night Democratic candidate Owen McCarthy lead Republican Robert Ferrante by three votes. After a recount the tally was tied with 1162 votes for each candidate. The Democrats went to court seeking another recount. Republicans argued for a special election to decide the winner. Judge Lawrence M. Lawson held off a decision, encouraging the sides to settle. Both parties told the APP that they would inform Lawson that they’ve agreed to a new election.
Ties followed by special elections are becoming a tradition in Monmouth County. In 2008 Republican Paul Buccellato and Democrat Mary Aufseeser were tied for the office of Matawan Mayor in the November polling. Buccellato prevailed in a January 2009 runoff. Last year in Keyport, Democratic Councilwoman Christian Bolte lead Republican Ed Burlew by one vote after the provisional ballots were counted. A recount resulted in a tie. Bolte prevailed in the January 2010 special election after challenging Burlew’s Keyport residency.
I sit at my computer with tears in my eyes, saddened by the loss of a woman that I never met and had no real connection to. Yet truthfully she was everyone. Elizabeth Edwards lived her last years with a dignity and strength, not necessarily quietly, that many women admire. When she believed her partner, and husband was wronged she championed his causes, stood by his side and supported him. Qualities we all admire. But more admirable is the lesson that she taught women everywhere was that, when he is not respecting you, when things are not going as planned, when the future looks uncertain without a man, it doesn’t mean you have to lay down and take it. With fortitude she took stock of her future with a man who had publically humiliated her and determined that no matter what, she loved herself enough to move on. This should be a mantra for women everywhere. We respect our partners, love care and champion them, but we must always learn to love and respect ourselves first. And if, we choose to move on we do so with a dignity that leaves our children in a place where they have parents that put them first.
As the child of a woman who fought cancer and did not survive, I first thought my emotional connection to Elizabeth Edwards was born of my own familial experience. But I believe in fact it is born out of sheer admiration for the lessons that she has conveyed. I know from personal experience that time does not heal, but only makes the pain more bearable. I wish to Elizabeth’s friends and family healing that includes pride in the legacy that Elizabeth Edwards has left us all.
Freeholder Deputy Director Rob Clifton will be chosen by his colleagues to serve as Freeholder Director when the board reorganizes in January.
Freeholder John Curley and Freeholder-elect Tom Arnone told MMM that they support Clifton for the position. Curley said that it is his understanding that current Director Lillian Burry also is supportive of Clifton filling the position. Clifton confirmed that he has the unanimous support of his fellow Republican Freeholders. Burry has yet to respond to MMM’s calls on the matter.
There is not yet a consensus as to who will be Deputy Director. Curley said he he would like the position but speculated that Burry might also want it. Arone, who will be sworn in for his first term in January, will defer to his senior colleagues to work it out. Clifton said, “we’re still meeting on that.”
Freeholder Amy Mallet, will be the lone Democrat serving on the board next year. As a minority party member, she would not be expected to be selected for a leadership position.
The Freeholder Director presides over meetings of the board and signs legal documents for the county.
The county budget is Clifton’s top priority. “Smaller and less expensive government is our objective, while providing residents with the services they have come to expect and that they pay for,” said Clifton, “The expansion of shared services with Monmouth County municipalities and school boards, as well as with other counties will enable us to reduce costs and improve the quality of services.”
The terms of Burry and Mallet both expire this year. Burry is expected to seek a third term. There has been speculation that Mallet will run for Assembly, depending upon how the legislative districts are redrawn. She a candidate for Assembly in the 12th legislative district in 2007 and sought the nomination in 2005.
Tom Moran is the editorial page editor of the Star Ledger and the reporter who unwittingly made Governor Chris Christie a YouTube sensation.
Moran decided that its time to grade the Governor. In a column published on Sunday, the pernicious pundit acknowledges that independent polls indicate that the voters are rating the Governor with A’s and B’s. He spends the rest of the column telling the voters (us) why they (we) are wrong about Christie. Moran say Christie only gets a C.
Moran gives Christie high marks for courage, calling the Governor a cage fighter for his cause. Despite this A, Moran gives Christie demerits for failing to compromise. This has been a theme of Moran’s throughout the year. Christie came to Trenton promising to turn the place upside down. Moran wants him to be nice while breaking the furniture.
Moran even gives the Governor a B on the budget, even though he calls Christie’s claim that he plugged an $11 billion budget hole “farcical.”
On the 2% property tax cap, Moran says Christie will earn a spot on the honor roll if it works, but so far it hasn’t. Duh. It hasn’t even gone into effect yet, and the “tool kit” negotiations with the Democratic legislative leadership are ongoing. Moran criticises Christie for not caving and accepting Oliver’s and Senate President Steve Sweeney’s first offer.
Moran takes Christie to task for calling Oliver a liar over her assertion that she tried to meet with Christie over the “tool kit.”
Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver was shocked when she learned that the governor had accused her of lying.
“That has irreparably affected my ability to work with this governor,” she says. “For him to cast aspersions on my integrity and say I would lie? That did it. That showed me I really cannot have a trusting relationship with this governor. Because he will distort the truth. He will stand up and lie.
“It was a game changer for me, a total game changer.”
Will Oliver’s resignation as Speaker be forthcoming? If she can’t or won’t work with the Governor she has no business being Speaker. Oliver should be grateful that the Governor and most of the media gave her (and Moran) a pass when she called the Governor racist in an earlier Moran column.
Moran seems to think it is a problem for Christie that Oliver and U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg “hate his guts.”
U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg felt this sting as well. After he criticized the governor for killing the Hudson River tunnel project, the governor lashed out.
“All he knows how to do is blow hot air,” Christie said. “So I don’t really care what Frank Lautenberg has to say about much of anything.”
This is the downside of the governor’s straight talk. He has to work with Oliver and Lautenberg, like it or not. And now they both seem to hate his guts.
“Look, I worked with Tom Kean and Christie Whitman, and had no problems,” Lautenberg says. “This is really unusual. There’s been hardly any communication from his office, and I’m on the Appropriations Committee. I put my heart and soul into this, and to have someone calling me names and trying to shame me? It’s incomprehensible.”
Lautenberg is old and has been very sick for most of the year. He can be forgiven for not noticing that Christie is not Tom Kean or Christie Whitman. Now that he’s woken up, he’ll start comprehending, if his heart and soul are really in his job. How effective has he been for us on the Appropriations Committee anyway?
Moran is right about one thing. Christie hasn’t delivered yet. But that is not the measure by which to grade a Governor 11 months into his term. Moran is a liberal ideologue masquerading as a moderate. Like ideologues on the right who are critical of Christie because he hasn’t fixed all the inequities of New Jersey government in 11 months, he is driven only by his own narrow agenda.
The NJEA is having a news conference in Trenton today to propose education reforms including “significant reform of the tenure system.” That is remarkable. Even if the proposed reforms are full of loop holes, which as a Jersey cynic I suspect they will be, the fact that the NJEA has entered the reform conversation is truly remarkable. Chris Christie made that happen.
Civil Service and binding arbitration is going to be reformed. Mayors and councils are going to be unbound from the ties that have driven property taxes to catastrophic levels and be empowered to truly manage their communities rather than rubber stamp state mandates. That is unbelievable. Chris Christie made that happen.
The 2% property tax cap, even with its exceptions, will truly force a reduction in the size of government, especially when inflation kicks in. Share services will become a reality out of necessity, rather than something community leaders pay lip service to during elections.
Chris Christie has changed the tone and transformed the direction of government in New Jersey. “Changed has arrived” he declared in his inaugural address. He is deliverying change. Trenton is not quite upside down yet, but it is surely tilted. He can’t be graded by the old score card, because he has changed the game in New Jersey and given Governors throughout the nation, and our leaders in Washington new rules.
Rather than a report card, lets judge Christie with a scorecard.
Christie is leading by a wide margin as the first quarter of his term comes to a close. Yet, the opposition of special interests and trough swillers have been studying the films and making adjustments. The final minutes of the quarter are critical as the effectiveness of the tool kit will be determined. Next year, the second quarter, is when the real heavy lifitng will start. Legislative redistricting, the budget and the legislative election will dominate the agenda. Municipal budgets drawn under the 2% cap will dominate the news. As the economy improves, if it does, “we don’t have the money” will not work as well in forcing reforms.
Christie gets an A for his first year. Next year will be the real test. Mid-terms will be in November. If the voters give Christie and A or B in the form of a Republican legislature, we’ll find out what “turning Trenton upside down” really means.
Pallone, Lautenberg and Menendez should put up. The Asbury Park Press should shut up
By Art Gallagher
In their editorial today, Sad chapter ends at fort, the Asbury Park Press editorial board demonstrates that their grasp of reality is insufficient for a newspaper of record for the Monmouth-Ocean region.
The press rehashes the sorry history of Sandy Hook Partners’ failed plans to redevelop Fort Hancock. They fault the National Park Service for granting the developer nine years of extensions to obtain financing for the redevelopment plans. They fail to mention that SHP’s ability to finance the project was thwarted by litigation and grassroots opposition to the commercialization of the park. The litigation and opposition was supported by the APP and by Congressman Frank Pallone.
Now the APP says,
Fort Hancock must be preserved for future generations. In order for that to happen, a developer or developers with both the money and sound plans need to be found. The park service would do well to heed the suggestion by Reps. Frank Pallone and Rush Holt, both D-N.J., that the historic buildings be leased to entities one by one, rather than as a package.
Clearly, neither the Neptune Nudniks nor the Congressmen have even an elementary understanding of how development works.
Where does Pallone, Holt and the APP think the Park Service will find a developer, or developers, with an extra $60-$100 million sitting in the bank who would be willing to commit it to Fort Hancock after what Sandy Hook Partners went through? James Wassel, the head of SHP is no slouch. His experience and personal committment to our community made him the right developer, if a public-private partnership was the best method to redevelop the fort.
Private partners were, and apparently still are, sought because federal dollars are not available to rehabilitate the park. Said another way, Frank Pallone, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez (and Jon Corzine, as U.S. Senator before Menedez) either did not have the clout or commiment to secure federal funding to rehabilitate Fort Hancock.
The Pallone/Holt/APP idea of leasing the 36 buildings of the fort one by one, to non-profits, rather than as a package, is crazy. Even if 36 organizations “with both money and sound plans” on hand could be found, managing 36 separate projects with 36 separate project managers is not feasible.
Wassel’s plan to “commercialise” Sandy Hook would not have turned the park into Times Square or the Monmouth Mall. He would have developed the fort into an educational and cultural campus.
As a neighbor of and frequent visitor to Sandy Hook, I never understood how Wassel’s plans would have been commercially viable or returned the investment required for the rehabilitation, given the location and climate of the site. Yet, I supported the plan because the proposed usage would have been an enhancement of the park. If private investors or lenders were willing to risk their capital on a project that enhanced the park while giving the National Park Service control of what could be done with the site in the event of failure, there was no downside for the public. Yes, I read the master lease. The public was protected from turning Fort Hancock into an amusement park or shopping mall.
Now that Wassel’s is out of the picture, it is incumbent upon our federal representitives to secure funding to preserve the fort. Failing that, the Park Service should fence it off and install Keep Out-Hazardous signs like there has been for most of the fort’s ruins for decades.
Alternatively, the Park Service should either level the buildings and convert the land to a recreational use like a marina and camp ground.
The Star Ledgeris reporting that the Rumson-Fair Haven Bulldogs have defeated the defending champion Matawan Huskies for the 2010 Central Jersey Group 2 High School football championship, the first championship for the Bulldogs in the history of the Regional High School.
Matawan Mayor Paul Buccellato and his colleagues on the borough’s council will be donating $200 to the Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties to payoff a friendly wager with Fair Haven Mayor Mike Halfacre and the Fair Haven Council. Halfacre told MMM that he and his colleagues will donate $200 to to the St. Mark’s Food Kitchen at Trinity Episcopal Church in Matawan, as a goodwill gesture, despite winning the wager.
Anyone wishing to make a donation of food to the Foodbank of Monmouth and Ocean can call 732-918-2600 or email [email protected]. Donations to St. Mark’s Food Kitchen can be arranged by calling 732-591-9210 or emailing [email protected].
Governor Chris Christie held his 15th Town Hall meeting since September in Parispanny yesterday afternoon.
NJ’s mainstream media was anticipating a good show and YouTube moments because the Governor had dubbed Parispanny School Superintendent Leroy Seitz “the poster boy for greed and arrogance” at an earlier Town Hall meeting. Seitz had renegotiated his contract with the Parsipanny Board of Education in order to avoid the pay cap that Christie is imposing effective in February.
The latest version of The Hanson Commission’s Report on gaming does nothing for the long term benefit of Oceanport and/or Monmouth Park and puts the Standardbred and Thoroughbred owners and trainers at odds with each other. The report calls for bringing Harness Racing to Monmouth Park to run at night in the winter months. The estimated costs to the State of New Jersey for the winterization of part of the grandstand, changing track surfaces and reconfiguring some of the barns for Standardbred Horses is $4.6 million. Winter harness racing would necessitate the installation of lights at our “historic” track right in center of a residential neighborhood. While we as a Council would love to do whatever it takes to protect Monmouth Park and help it not only survive, but thrive, this Commission’s proposed plan ignores the most obvious socially and fiscally responsible solution: allowing for the installation of video lottery terminals, slot machines or a gaming casino at the Meadowlands.
Both the Standardbred owners and the thoroughbred owners are united in their opposition to a dual meet at Monmouth. The Standardbred owners have perhaps the best track in the country, at the Meadowlands, located in an industrial area off of Route 3, 7 miles from midtown Manhattan. It is foolhardy to expect their loyal patrons to travel 1 hour South of East Rutherford to Oceanport to enjoy Harness Racing when Yonkers Raceway, 30 minutes away from East Rutherford, offers the same product AND a casino. The thoroughbred owners have enjoyed Monmouth Park for years and would much rather race on the surface that currently exists. Let’s not forget that the two most interested parties, the horsemen and the general public, are clamoring for a racino at the Meadowlands facility, the Commission dismisses the idea out of hand in favor of a proposal that provides neither party with what it wants.
Two reports by Christiansen Capital Advisors, commissioned by the New Jersey Department of Treasury, recommended the installation of slot machines at the Meadowlands. The reports stated that 5,000 machines at the Meadowlands would produce $750 million annually and that 10,000 machines would produce $1.5 billion annually. The same study suggested that 2,100 slots at the Meadowlands would reduce Atlantic City gross gaming revenue by a mere .01 percent.
Senator Sean Kean recently said on the New Jersey Senate floor “if it (a Racino at the Meadowlands) were put to a vote we’d probably get a majority, if not a super-majority (in support), to save horse racing in the state of New Jersey.” Despite the overwhelming financial benefits flowing from such an arrangement, the Hanson Report summarily dismisses the installation of Video Lottery Terminals, slot machines or a gaming casino in the Meadowlands.
Chairman Hanson, through his Commission, which, interestingly, includes no horsemen, refuses to acknowledge the viability of the racino model and, instead, continues to dump on our horse racing industry and the 7,000 jobs, $110 million in federal, state and local taxes, and 57,000 acres of working agricultural landscape which come along with it. Racinos around the country employ nearly 30,000 people. Bringing racinos to New Jersey will create thousands of new jobs. Additionally, it will solidify many jobs that may be in danger of leaving our state in favour of states that have already authorized racino legislation. Racinos are a proven model that states around the country are turning to for gaming. Twelve states have already implemented racinos and many more are debating proposals to allow them in the near future. In 2009, racinos around the country generated $2.6 billion dollars in tax revenue for state and local governments. Additionally, they strengthen the state’s agricultural industry. Racinos allow existing racetracks to grow their purses, spurring new investments in breeding racehorse ownership throughout the state. Additional racehorses will create more jobs and improve the overall economic impact. As Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York and the nine other racino states can attest – racinos improve the rural economy.
Racinos that have reinvested their windfalls into racing, such as Sunland Park in New Mexico which hosts the Grade 3 Sunland Park Derby, which Mine That Bird used as a launching pad to his Kentucky Derby victory, and Prairie Meadows in Iowa, which hosts the Iowa Festival of Racing, with three graded stakes that attracted full fields of competitive, quality horses in 2010 are just two examples of the proven business model.
Let’s do everything we can to get this matter to a vote of the New Jersey legislature as soon as possible!
By Joe Irace