Chris Christie Attacks Atlantic City’s Mayor
New Jersey’s governor, Chris Christie, has called Atlantic City “one of the worst-run, the most bankrupt, ridiculous municipal governments in America”.
Governor Christie has accused Atlantic City of being poorly run and wasting huge amounts of state funds
The comments, which were made at a town hall event in Morris County, resulted in a war of words between the Republican governor and Atlantic City’s mayor who said that Christie has “no idea what he’s doing.”
Mayor Lorenzo Langford said that Christie is guilty of “wasteful spending and incompetence” and said his comments were “tantamount to calling his own subordinates incompetent.”
Christie’s comments seem to be due to a report which found 15 public employees retiring with $2.2 million payouts for unused sick and vacation time.
In his budget address Christie called for legislation to stop any future public employees from cashing out on unused sick time.
Atlantic City has been suffering from falling visitor numbers and a slow economy. Christie is now trying to help bring revenues in by signing an internet gambling bill.
As a result of the bill the state Treasury is expecting to see increased casino revenue from $235 million this year to around $436 million in 2014.
