New Jersey is closed

[joatmon]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07....htmlQuote »Corzine Shut Downs New Jersey's GovernmentBy RICHARD G. JONESPublished: July 1, 2006TRENTON, July 1 -- Unable to break a bitter impasse with the New Jersey Legislature on a new budget, Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed an executive order today that shut down the state’s government for the first time in its history.The order began a process that over the next few days will see the state close its parks, beaches and, depending on the outcome of a court decision, possibly the 12 Atlantic City casinos.The effects of the order were felt almost immediately. Department of Motor Vehicle operations were suspended when offices around the state closed at noon Saturday. Horse racing was called off. Road construction projects were halted.And the New Jersey Lottery, which with $2 billion in annual sales is the fourth-largest source of revenue for the state after income, sales and corporate taxes, was ordered to stop selling tickets tonight. ...

[ragingfish]

Yeah, you can feel in the air somethign is "amiss"

[slvrvibes]

yikes!

[amynoelle]

i work for the state, but i'm at work today. :/ my university passed a bridge budget last week in case this very scenario unfolded. so, we are open for business as usual.it's scary that atlantic city is closed though. i'm sure their lobbying groups will have this situation resolved in a jiffy!

[AKLGT]

wow! but ya, i can imagine this was the extreme measure to make the point... no budget = no opperation. i'm sure they will be in a hurry to get this resolved!

[slvrvibes]

The governor called for a special session to have been held yesterday. Any word on any resolutions?

[jake75]

I am pleased to read that there is a state government even more dysfunctional than the one we have in Ohio.

[ColonelPanic]

Yeah, we need money, and casinos bring in a shload of money, but we're just gonna go ahead and force them to close. lol!I can see it happening though, I used to be in the industry. You gotta have the state there watching everything that goes on. Or in my case, the gaming commission guys were often hanging around playin' computer games. Hope they get everything resolved!

[ragingfish]

no resolutions as of yet.currently, lottery is out of commission, all state parks and beaches are closed, and casino floors are closed.

[ragingfish]

The shutdown ends...Quote »Corzine, Lawmakers Reach New Jersey Deal, Person Says (Update1)July 6 (Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine and fellow Democrats in the Assembly agreed to a compromise today to end a budget impasse that shut down state government for six days and forced Atlantic City casinos to close, a politician who attended the negotiations said.Corzine and the lawmakers had been at an impasse over the governor's plan to increase the sales tax to close a $4.5 billion gap in a budget of almost $31 billion for the fiscal year that began July 1.Earlier this afternoon, State Senate President Richard Codey reported progress toward ending the standoff from meeting at the Statehouse in Trenton, saying ``a deal is in the works.''The breakthrough came after Corzine proposed another compromise to the Assembly to dedicate to property tax relief for 10 years half the proceeds of a sales tax increase to 7 percent from 6 percent.As word of the agreement spread, Assemblyman Gerald Green, a Plainfield Democrat, said officials hoped to get the casinos, which were shut down yesterday, reopened quickly. Gaming was halted because the required state inspectors were unavailable.``It'll take a little here and there but I'm hoping that in the next couple of hours the casinos will be back open and we can get people back to work,'' Green said. ``That's the main thing.''FurloughsThe governor halted non-essential state services on July 1 because without a budget for the new fiscal year, he has no authority to spend money. About 45,000 of 81,000 state employees were furloughed.Corzine, 59, in his third speech to the Legislature in as many days this morning, said he offered the compromise in the last 12 hours to try to end the shutdown that has closed state courts, parks, beaches, campgrounds, racetracks, the lottery and Atlantic City casinos. He urged lawmakers to ``end this mess.''Corzine said the compromise he offered ``provides billions of dollars of funding for property tax relief over 10 years, while implementing meaningful progress toward financial responsibility.''Assembly Democratic leaders opposed Corzine's proposal to put all of the $1.1 billion raised from a sales-tax increase toward reducing a $4.5 billion deficit in the budget.Assembly Democrats introduced their own budget last night that didn't include a sales-tax increase. Their $30.7 billion plan for fiscal 2007 would keep property-tax rebates at existing levels, restore $120 million of Corzine's proposed cuts to higher education and extend the current 6 percent sales tax to items such as security and temporary-employee services.To contact the reporter on this story:Stacie Servetah in Trenton at sbabula@bloomberg.netLast Updated: July 6, 2006 16:15 EDT