Quid pro quo is an exchange that is supposed to be even. “I’ll do this for you if you do that for me.” In the political world that has taken on pejorative connotations. Politicians are not supposed work in that fashion, although I certainly see a place for it at times.
There’s a case of it happening right here in Millville. Protecting their investment, the Millville City Commission is negotiating with the New Jersey Motorsports Park. That’s probably backwards; NJMP wants something and is leading the city politicians around by the nose.
An agreement that was going to revolutionize the ratable base in town, put people to work, and generally lift Millville up to heaven brought a racing track to town. That agreement had the owners of the track being able to option a piece of land from the city to build an ATV track.
NJMP has not been successful thus far. It is hemorrhaging money. It is so bad that it needed the taxpayers to float $400,000 for operating expenses this year. Never heard about that? Yeah, the local papers aren’t much on reporting bad news about NJMP since it advertises so heavily.
In an effort to bolster its revenue sources, NJMP has decided that if it could build the ATV track on land it already has, it can save the million dollars or so it would need to spend to buy the land in the agreement. So it decided to go back to the lap dog City Commission to get permission.
While bringing no tax benefits to the city, it has brought plenty of noise. What was hailed as a low din that wouldn’t be noticed, has been an in-your-face noise generator. It culminated a few weeks ago with its racing to midnight. That even got some of the fence sitters ticked to the point of complaining. Ticked off taxpayers complain to the City Commission.
Politicians know they sometimes actually have to do something. It can’t all be about themselves as they can’t be re-elected if they don’t occasionally do something. The noise issue has been enough of an issue that commissioning a couple reports and stonewalling hasn’t been enough to appease those whom they need votes from. They actually formed a committee!
Finch [Millville City Commissioner Dale Finch] stated the committee would ask how NJMP officials would be willing to address resident complaints if the commission decides to reopen the development agreement to allow the ATV track.
There you go. Do something about the noise to get the taxpayers voters off our backs and we’ll grant you the right to build the ATV track on the land you already own.
Of course, Millville loses in this deal. We won’t get the money from the sale of land that was already agreed to. That land was further away from the town’s residences.
And what faith can taxpayers/voters have that this committee will negotiate anything good? The first round got us a track that has negatively affected our homes. Local politicians are no match for the corporate track owners and their lawyers.
The committee formed is filled with many of the same folks who were onboard when NJMP first came. The rest are politicians. Only Commissioner Vanaman lives in an area affected by the track. No one from the public was part of negotiating team.
When Commissioner Quinn and Mayor Shannon have to abstain from votes regarding NJMP because they are so entrenched with them, that leaves but 60% of the City Commission to do the people’s business. Dale Finch, career politician with huge Democratic ties to others who are on the Green Flag Committee at NJMP, may not have our interests front and center. Commissioner Vanaman has a horse in this race, but I am not convinced he has the clout to steer the committee. He didn’t get the general public involved, did he?
Consider me skeptical with the prospects that a good deal was negotiated on behalf of those affected.
Governor Christie announced today that he will borrow $1.4 billion to fund the Transportation Trust Fund this year. The TTF budget is $895 million. Of that, $850 million is payment on TTF’s debt. That’s correct, the TTF is so in debt, most of its budget is to pay the vig on money it has already borrowed. What do you think new borrowing is going to do to next year’s budget?
Oh sure, Christie has promised to fix this.
“What it’s going to look like, I have no idea yet,” he said. “I have not given it deep thought in terms of how we’re going to fix the problem and, candidly, I want to get advice from other people on how to fix it.”
This is how we got into this mess. Five years ago I said the same thing. Voters elected Governor Corzine. The very first thing Corzine did was borrow money to fill the potholes. That bill will come due 30 years from now. We will have re-filled the potholes with new borrowing long before then.
There is absolutely no difference between Christie’s move today and Corzine’s then. Different men, same bad government. How pathetic it is that even the highly inefficient federal government laments New Jersey’s decisions?
This is not leadership. Not one dime should be loaned to New Jersey for the TTF until a real plan is in place. Christie’s move is pure politics . . . just stemming the tide until later. Later, the bill balloons. He was supposed to be different. This is the same corrupt politics we have had all along.
Governor Christie, you talk tough to the teachers, but you are on your knees servicing your political cronies on this one. We deserve better than this.
Last evening there was a program to address some of the issues Millville is facing. Hosted at In His Presence Worship Center, a panel that included Millville Commissioner Finch, Pastor Ennis, Pastor Wilkins, Prosecutor Webb-McCrae, Bridgeton Councilman Surrency, Freeholder Thompson, and Millville Housing Authority Executive Director Dice. The panel was moderated by Jill Lombardo-Melchiore of Cumberland County College.
Mayor Shannon and Commissioner Vanaman also addressed the audience. Commissioner Derella was in attendance.
The symposium was billed as addressing the quality of life in the city. It remained positive, but nothing was resolved. Nothing was planned.
Mr. Dice spoke well about Section 8 housing. There are but 16 Section 8 housing vouchers in the Third Ward and about 45 in Center City. But that doesn’t really tell the whole story. Those are only Millville’s vouchers. Vouchers from other communities or states could populate the rest of the residences and Mr. Dice would have absolutely no idea. He said 20-some of Millville’s vouchers are in Laurel Lake. He can only track Millville’s vouchers. It seems to me that some agency/system should be able to spit out a list of how vouchers in all reside in Center Center. Shouldn’t HUD be able to produce that list?
Melissa spoke intelligently about being a recipient of a Section 8 voucher. A former drug addict and mother of nine recently wrote a letter to ask to be removed from the program. She is now self-sufficient.
Millville’s problems are multi-faceted. Many of those issues were discussed last evening. It was interesting to see where each member of the panel stood. I did not agree with all that was spoken, but I do believe each is sincere in his point of view.
The following is the entire evening’s discussion. Discussion isn’t the right word as there was little discussion. Bloviating is too loaded of a word. How about: the following is what happened. You decide the merits.
I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
The Delaware River Port Authority seems to not be following its charter. Zachary Fink of NJN did a wonderful investigative piece exposing what certainly seems to be a government agency that has run amok. New Jersey (and Pennsylvania) taxpayers should demand government investigations!
Today New Jersey launched YourMoney.NJ.gov. We hope this site will be a truthful accounting of how Trenton spends our tax dollars. It is not fully implemented yet, but there are some interesting data already available.
Six months into 2010 there are already 22,509 state employees who have earned $1,000 or more of overtime. That’s correct, $22.5 million in OT!
Andrei Martin is #1 on the state payroll already banking $50,240.47 in overtime. Mr. Martin’s annual salary is $86,254.60. In the middle of this difficult economy, Mr. Martin has banked $109,472.79 thanks to New Jersey taxpayers.
Martin is one of 31 state employees who have already pocketed more than $30,000 in OT this year!
Governor Christie, want to get the public behind you? Drop this list to zero.
