Posted on 02/02/2016 7:13:44 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Chris Christie, stalking New Hampshire votes, is reportedly embarrassed at the idea of Atlantic City declaring bankruptcy. He shouldn't be. There's no shame in an honest bankruptcy, whether for a city or a person. If you've taken on more than you can ever repay, it doesn't do you any good to pretend you haven't. It doesn't really help the people you owe money to, either.
Last year, Atlantic City's budget deficit was more than $120 million -- or more than a third of revenues. That would be like if New York City had a budget shortfall of $20 billion. The resort town can't pay its bills in part because even though it lost a third of its population over the past five decades, it never cut spending accordingly.
And it didn't do the hard work of building a real city around its own natural, built-in environmental advantages, where people might want to live and work -- say, because of its beautiful waterfront.
Instead, the state encouraged the city to bet big on casinos, sucking outsiders' money in rather than creating a real tax base. That was a sucker's bet, though: A third of the city's casinos have closed, and tax revenues have plummeted.
So how did Atlantic City deal with its budget deficit? A year ago, Christie appointed an "emergency manager" to fix the problem.
What did he do? The state offered $40 million in aid -- a one-shot deal that New Jersey can't afford to keep offering. The state also let Atlantic City skip a pension and retiree health-care payment that it was supposed to make to the state to save another $40 million. But that just puts Atlantic City $40 million into debt -- to a state pension system that is deep in the red itself.
(Excerpt) Read more at manhattan-institute.org ...
Bankruptcy is such a bad, bad, bad thing! How can anyone advocate it as a good thing?
If I were Governor, I would PUSH them into bankruptcy, and I would NOT appoint an emergency manager. I wouldn’t appoint anyone. Why make their problems your own problems?
Rather, start talking about prosecution of key politicians there.
Trump to Doughnut Boy: “I may have bankrupted two companies in Atlantic City, but you’ve bankrupted an entire city.”
You cannot survive when the supporting infrastructure and its population are recipients and not producers. I’ve been to AC numerous times and only once did I ever leave the casino to go to a restaurant. I never even stopped to fill up my gas tank. That is not the exception, that is the rule.
I wouldn’t characterize it as ‘good’, but sometimes its the only option.
I believe it was the same company
Trump Entertainment
They should let in bankrupt and restructure
Not if you are Donald Trump! Then it is only bad, bad, bad. ;-)
You can not put all your eggs in one basket. That a casino will cure all that ails AC. AC probably did nothing to attract new businesses to expand the tax base. Without private jobs outside the casinos, you are doomed to failure.
What AC should do as Bernie would do is give free money to everyone. Start a free university, free health care for all. Free food and minimum walking around dollars for all. Free, free, free equals success for all. Let Bernie do it. Rather than Weekend with Bernie its would be Atlantic City with Bernie. They both end the same way. Both Bernie and AC are dead Monday morning.
Going to the dentist is a bad thing: it is terribly painful, it's expensive, and it involves a stranger sticking their fingers in your mouth and drilling away on your teeth. Still, we go to a dentist because all of the alternates are worse. It is the same with bankruptcy: you file bankruptcy because all of the alternatives are worse. Typically, in a corporate bankruptcy, or in this case a municipality, a bankruptcy is filed to protect what assets and opportunities remain to the debtor. That protection is a good thing because it allows a judge to sort out who gets what in an orderly fashion, instead of these things being decided by a race to the courthouse.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.