It’s Hard Out Here Being…Morgan Stanley

Our friends at Morgan Stanley had a tough week defending the $3oo million taxpayer rebate for their half-built casino in Atlantic City.  Let’s recap:

Last Sunday, the Asbury Park Press ran a front page story outlining the pros and cons of the tax rebate for Morgan Stanley.  Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

Then on Wednesday, a group of hearty citizens protested in front of Morgan Stanley’s offices in Jersey City.  In response, backers of the Morgan Stanley bailout tried a new tact: pretend Morgan Stanley isn’t involved in the casino (a claim we quickly debunked).

On Thursday, supporters of tax rebate for the Morgan Stanley casino started publicly wringing their hands over NJ Governor Christie’s relative silence on the issue.  According to the Press of Atlantic City, “supporters of the plan admit they are now worried about the project’s delays and the governor’s persistent lack of commitment to the project.”  Kevin Descantis, the CEO of Morgan Stanley’s casino investment vehicle, told the Press that “his biggest challenge is educating the Governor’s Office in the midst ‘of all this confusion.’ He said Revel officials have been working to get a meeting with Christie or others in his office, but have not heard back yet.”  You can also “educate” the Governor by emailing your views about the tax rebate.

And yesterday, two editorials blasted the bailout.  Bob Ingle, the senior political columnist for Gannett New Jersey newspapers, said it better than we could:

“Morgan Stanley, which got $10 billion in federal bailout money, put together a development group that wants us to fork over more than $350 million in tax breaks to finish an Atlantic City casino. Your lawmakers are trying to kill an effort to let the people decide…The Atlantic City Council voted in December to move ahead with the tax breaks but unionized casino waiters and bartenders called Unite Here gathered enough signatures to put it before the voters in a referendum.

This caused mayhem in Trenton. You can’t have the people who pay the taxes deciding how to use them — that’s the kind of crazy thinking that got Chris Christie elected governor. So, Sen. Ray Lesniak, D-Union, and champion of the little guy, cooked up a bill, S-920, that would ban referendums on local development ordinances. Take that, you sorry little taxpaying troublemakers. If the Revel deal is such a good thing for Atlantic City, why not trust the good voters there?

The Asbury Park Press also strongly editorialized against the Morgan Stanley tax rebate, calling it “beyond the pale.”  They wrote that “Gov. Chris Christie should reject the giveaway to Morgan Stanley, which recently paid off $10 billion in federal bailout money and had enough left over to award $14.4 billion in bonuses and compensation to its employees.”