Officials: Nassau Coliseum will be ‘safest place in the country’ for Trump rally

Bridgeport receives top credit rating from Fitch

President Obama to receive top honor from West Point Military Academy

Trump was the subject of an apparent assassination attempt at his Florida golf club, the FBI says

Power & Politics: Remembering the Sept. 11 terror attacks 23 years later

Power & Politics: Edward Caban steps down as commissioner of the NYPD

newyork

News 12 Staff

NJPP97B_2024-09-07-14-52-41

Welcome back to New Jersey, power and Politics. I'm Eric L Krenner. New Jersey making a serious play to lure the 76ers away from Philly, the head of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, sending a letter to team owner Harris Blitzer Sports and entertainment saying, quote, I'm writing today to confirm the state of New Jersey's strong interest in jointly developing with you a large scale redevelopment project in the city of Camden that would include a world class sports and entertainment arena to serve as a new home of the 76ers. Now the potential of hundreds of millions in tax incentives on the table here to learn more. I spoke this week with the Njed A Ceo Tim Sullivan. This is really a full court press that you guys are putting on to try and get the 76ers to come to New Jersey. What are you trying to do to sweeten the pot and, and, and get them here? Well, we think uh Camden is a great home for the Sixers. Uh New Jersey is home to a lot of Sixers fans, particularly South Jersey. Uh We've got land, we've got uh economic development incentives that Governor Murphy had signed into law a few years ago to compete for opportunities just like this. And um our basic message to the Sixers and to Harri Blitzer, we have a great relationship with is um we'd love to have you in New Jersey. You'll have no better partner than the state of New Jersey and the city of Camden. And uh in building a great, not just arena but mixed use uh waterfront development that would transform a big chunk of the Camden waterfront. I was gonna ask you how, how do you envision this uh when it, if it comes to fruition, if you can actually bring uh the 76ers here, of course, their practice and training facility is already here, so they already have a footprint. Yeah, exactly. The Sixers are great partners to the State of New Jersey and Camden Har Blitzer as well. They own the Devils uh and the Prudential Center just down the way from where I am here in Newark. Uh And so we, you know, really, really strong partnerships already. Yeah, I think you can, you can close your eyes and imagine a world class arena surrounded by uh new residential development, new office space, new retail and restaurants that really creates uh and adds to the to the momentum that that Camden's experienced over the last uh you know, several years, several decades and you're potentially talking about several 100 several $100 million in tax incentives here. Correct. Yeah, we have a program called Aspire A Spire that um Governor Murphy signed the law a few years ago with strong bipartisan support legislature um to compete for opportunities just like this. Um The good news is that in that, that program ensures that taxpayers get a return on their investment. So, uh we do something called the net benefit test that basically says for every dollar, uh that the taxpayers would put into supporting a project, we're gonna get more than a dollar back and then some uh in returns, whether that's in property taxes, income tax, sales tax. What have you, any of the num number of streams that would happen here and with a project like this, the upside is enormous. This is uh the kind of opportunity to bring brand new jobs, brand new investment, brand new economic activity to the city of Camden. What about further upside and just making New Jersey more of a destination for pro sports? Yeah, absolutely. You know, we're a big pro sports state already. Uh, five state, excuse me, five teams, uh, you know, play their home games in the garden state. Uh The Devils are the only ones that have uh New Jersey on the front of their, on their shirts. We're proud of that. Um But um we're between the Jets, the Giants, uh the Red Bulls, Gotham FC and, and the Devils. We're a big, big time sports state, the World Cup final in the eyes. Of the entire world, uh, will be on, uh, on the Meadowlands in June of 2026. Uh, and so we're a big time sports state. Uh, we think this is a great place to, to build a sports franchise and, uh, support, uh, um, uh, a big arena. All right. So, listen, you mentioned you have the relationship with Harris Blitzer. We've had this relationship in New Jersey for a while already. So, what are the odds? Does that give you an advantage here? Uh, do you think that ultimately New Jersey will be able to land the 76ers? Well, you know, as they say, in the lottery business, you got to be in it to win it. Um, and we're, we're, we're putting our best foot forward. Governor Murphy has, has led the charge here and our team, uh, is, uh, is fully supportive of, of what the governor is trying to do here. I would be, I hesitate to, to, you know, speculate or make any odds. But, uh, ii, I take it seriously when the Sixers say on the record that they're taking it seriously, you know, I think they've, um, they've been trying to get something done in the city of Philadelphia for a number of years doesn't seem to be making the kind of progress that they, um, that they would like to see. They've got, uh, you know, they, they have a need to open their arena, I think by the 2031 campaign to open it up. You know, we, we hope that's opening night in Camden, New Jersey, the eyes of the eyes of the, at least the NBA and all their fans would be on New Jersey. You did receive a pretty immediate response from them. Was that encouraging? Well, sure, again, we've, um, we're really encouraged by the, I, I think that I can promise you that they are taking this seriously um that they are spending. Um you know, uh we've got a chance to spend some time with them on this. We've, we've laid out, you know, our vision um and the resources that we can bring to bear, which is important uh because we know this is an important decision for, for Harris Blitzer and for the Sixers. And so, um you know, we, we're certainly encouraged by their um by their engagement and the, the words they've shared publicly over the last couple of days and we're gonna, we're gonna stay at it. We gotta, you know, we, we pledged in that letter uh to be good partners and that means working through all the potential issues, working through, you know, making sure that this has really important uh community benefits. So all of our programs require community benefits agreement. The residents of Camden and the residents of the State of New Jersey deserve to participate in the economic prosperity that this would bring whether it's jobs or, or other things. So we're gonna work hard together to, to get the, get it right on those questions and also make sure that the fan experience, uh whether it's transportation or transit um is great because that's Harri Blitzer team and the Sixers would expect nothing less than a, than a first rate fan experience. And so with New Jersey residents who are Sixers fans, and uh we think that working together to solve some of those uh questions and make sure this is gonna be a win, win, win for everybody involved is uh is, is a huge priority for us. How long could a process like this take in terms of finding out if, if, if you're in the final running? And uh have you gotten any pushback from leaders in Philadelphia saying, whoa whoa whoa Jersey back off. So, you know, timetable, I would hesitate again, speculate on, um you know, we had a big moment this week in sort of publicly declaring our, our commitment, our intentions. Um You know, the Sixers have said they're on a timeline and that they're out of, you know, running short on that timeline with uh what they've been up to in, in Philadelphia. I haven't heard directly from uh from Philly, but um sure others have, uh you know, so the mayor made some public comments about this, their, their governor made some public comments about this in Pennsylvania that both of whom are obviously great leaders and people. We have a ton of respect for, but they, they've certainly took notice of, of, of what Governor Murphy's been up to here and, um, we're gonna continue to work it hard and be aggressive and thoughtful, uh, at the same time and, uh, hopefully bring the Sixers to South Jersey. All right, Tim, Sullivan Ceo of the New Jer, New Jersey Economic Development Authority. Tim, thanks so much. Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it and of course, we are going to keep you updated on the entire process up next here on power and politics. George Helmy preparing for his swearing in in the US Senate. Power and politics continues right after the break.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/0acdcff0-e442-47fd-82b5-9c87aee0a761/0acdcff0-e442-47fd-82b5-9c87aee0a761.transcribe

NJPP97C_2024-09-07-14-58-04

Welcome back to power and politics. I'm Eric Land Krenner, congressman, Josh Gottheimer leading a push to make school buses safer across the country. Painful topic in North Jersey. Going back to the deadly crash of a Paramus school bus. Six years ago, 10 year old Miranda Vargas and teacher Jennifer Williamson Kennedy were killed. Miranda's law was already signed in New Jersey requiring that buses have lap and Children seatbelts. The hope now is to make that federal law while adding systems that would alert a bus driver if a student seatbelt was off and also alert a bus company if a driver has a license suspension or other violations. Right now, bus driver get a license and then go months without their employer receiving an update on their background. Right now. School districts only need to check a driver's record once a year, Congressman Gottheimer has the support of the parents of Miranda Vargas. Her father believes that she'd still be alive today if she'd been wearing a seat belt. The driver that day went to prison for making an illegal U turn. He had a history of license suspensions, early voting taking place in this week ahead in New Jersey's 10th congressional district. This is part of the special election to fill the seat of the late congressman Donald Payne Junior, who passed away in April. A democrat, La Monica macgyver is going head to head against Republican Carmen Buco. The special election will be held September 18th. Now remember this is only to serve out the remainder of Congressman Payne's un expired term. The November election will decide who will serve the district in DC for the next two years. And Monday George Helmy will be sworn in to serve out the remainder of former Senator Bob Menendez's term. Helmy. The governor's former chief of staff was appointed by the Governor Democratic Congressman Andy Kim and Republican Curtis Bashaw will duke it out in November for a full term. Menendez resigned from office last month after a federal corruption conviction also happening this week. The first and currently only presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. The two will square off Tuesday at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia in the ABC news presidential debate, microphones will be muted when a candidate isn't speaking. Vice President Harris wanted them open. We'll be carrying the ABC news presidential debate simulcast here on news 12. Again that is Tuesday, September 10th starting at nine in the evening and that'll do it for this week's show. I'm Erik Lands Kroner. As always, we thank you for watching New Jersey Power and Politics. We'll see you again, next time.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/4d65ed2f-51e6-4eff-9ce5-f67f66351ca2/4d65ed2f-51e6-4eff-9ce5-f67f66351ca2.transcribe

This week on Power & Politics - casino workers aim to ban smoking in Atlantic City, taking a shot at the 76ers and school bus safety. 

Choose Your Region

Be the first to know

Change

Be the first to know

Power & Politics: Casino workers put pressure on lawmakers to ban smoking in Atlantic City gaming halls

This week on Power & Politics - casino workers aim to ban smoking in Atlantic City, taking a shot at the 76ers and school bus safety.

More Stories

Officials: Nassau Coliseum will be ‘safest place in the country’ for Trump rally

Bridgeport receives top credit rating from Fitch

President Obama to receive top honor from West Point Military Academy

Trump was the subject of an apparent assassination attempt at his Florida golf club, the FBI says

Power & Politics: Remembering the Sept. 11 terror attacks 23 years later

Power & Politics: Edward Caban steps down as commissioner of the NYPD

Officials: Nassau Coliseum will be ‘safest place in the country’ for Trump rally

Bridgeport receives top credit rating from Fitch

President Obama to receive top honor from West Point Military Academy

Trump was the subject of an apparent assassination attempt at his Florida golf club, the FBI says

Power & Politics: Remembering the Sept. 11 terror attacks 23 years later

Power & Politics: Edward Caban steps down as commissioner of the NYPD

More from News 12

Power & Politics: Remembering the Sept. 11 terror attacks 23 years later

Power & Politics: Edward Caban steps down as commissioner of the NYPD

Power & Politics: Vice President Harris and former President Trump face off in Philadelphia

Power & Politics: Taking a look at the debate between former President Trump and Vice President Harris

Tom Donlon rises as interim police commissioner

Power & Politics: Trump/Harris debate preview – what to look for as election approaches