Key Vote Alert: Morgan Stanley Casino Bailout

Contact your legislators and tell them to vote NO on the Morgan Stanley Revel Casino Bailout!

Legislators in Trenton are poised to give away $350 MILLION of your tax money to bail out Morgan Stanley’s failing Revel Casino project in Atlantic City.

Now is the time for us to stop them!

CLICK HERE to send a message to your legislators that you expect them to vote NO on this bill.

The Revel Casino Bailout

S920/A2059 – Last week we informed you about bills S920/A2059 – which would give Morgan Stanley a $350 MILLION bailout from the state of New Jersey to fund their failed Revel Casino project. This after Morgan Stanley has already received a whopping $10 BILLION in TARP funds from the federal government. Morgan Stanley’s Revel Casino is expected to generate $1.5 BILLION in profits in just its first five years, so there is no reason New Jersey taxpayers should be asked to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to bail them out.

Bill Status: Senate Bill S920 is on “2nd Reading” in the Senate and could be voted on by the full Senate during the next voting session which is scheduled for Monday, February 22nd.
The Assembly version, A2059, is also on “2nd Reading” and was released from committee. A vote by the full Assembly could take place on Thursday, February 25th.

Contact Your Legislators Now!

AFP will be fighting this bill hard in the coming days and we need your help. Now is the time to start contacting your legislators and telling them to vote NO on the Revel Casino bailout.

Tell them you have had enough of bailouts and expect them to stop wasting our tax dollars.

CLICK HERE to send a message to your legislators that you expect them to vote NO on this bill.

Likewise, contact Governor Christie and tell him you expected real change from his administration, not the same old Trenton politics. Tell him to VETO this bill if it reaches his desk.

CLICK HERE to contact Governor Christie.

REFERENCE: Workforce Housing, A new social engineering scheme that expands COAH mandates and undermines our economy and property values.

S1, the legislation currently pending in the NJ senate, expands the power of the Council on Affordable Housing by combining COAH rules, regulations, power and functions and not to mention the entire COAH budget with the State Planning Commission. This merger of bureaucracies creates an even more formidable Super Bureaucracy for the forcing of LOW INCOME HOUSING on your community. But the Central Planners behind this merger are not happy with just more power. They now want to expand their universe of influence beyond “Affordable Housing” and into the realm of median income housing.

S1 proposes to add this new category, Workforce Housing, which will be built for those earning from 80% to 120% of the median income for a region. That’s 20 percentage points both sides of dead center of income earners. That’s right; the planners now want to build housing for just about everyone.

The housing is restricted for purchase by people who must work in the community in which the housing is built. THIS IS TAILOR MADE FOR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES! The state that pays the highest teacher, police and government worker salaries in the country now wants to build taxpayer subsidized, below market housing aimed almost specifically at those same government employees.
And if this is not foolishness enough, the politically connected persons lucky enough to grab one of these below market homes can sell whenever they want and skate off with their taxpayer subsidized profits. Here’s the exact language from the bill that reveals this corruption catalyst:

“19. (New section) a municipal ordinance adopted pursuant to section 17 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) shall not require any restrictions on the subsequent resale price of a workforce housing unit following the initial sale from a developer.”

“‘Workforce housing’ means housing affordable to, according to federal Department of Housing and Urban Development or other recognized standards for Home ownership and rental costs, and occupied by, or reserved for occupancy by, households with a gross household income equal to more than 80 percent but less than 120 percent of the median gross household income for households of the same size within the housing region in which the housing is located, and that may be reserved for occupancy by households with at least one member working in the municipality or living in the municipality.”

The two paragraphs above appear on page 19 of S1, the bill that alleges to “abolish” COAH. Do Americans want its government to construct and sell middle income housing? Does anyone believe these “Workforce” units will not be for the politically connected?

This ridiculous idea expands COAH far beyond its original intent.
COAH by any other name is still COAH.

Additional Memorandums to follow.

On to Victory,

Steve Lonegan

State Director

HOLD THE DATE

Americans for Prosperity 2010 New Media and Bloggers Conference will be held Saturday, March 27 at the Holiday Inn in Saddle Brook. This all day program will include the leading experts on cutting edge internet technology and how freedom loving Americans can use the internet to defend liberty and freedom. Mark your calendar. Details will follow.

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