Gov. Christie: Bipartisan Work Moves North Jersey Gaming Forward

Statement

Governor Christie: I'm pleased, after a lot of effort and a lot of conversation amongst the three of us, that we can announce today that we have an agreement on how to move forward on North Jersey gaming, and I'll outline it as follows:

Nothing will get done today beyond the vote that has already happened in the Senate. As the new session begins tomorrow, the Sarlo/Sweeney version of the constitutional resolution will be introduced in both houses. There will be an addition to the Sarlo/Sweeney resolution. That addition is at the suggestion of the speaker, that, for each licensee there be a mandatory minimum $1 billion investment in each license. So in each of the two licenses those projects must be worth a capital investment, at least, of $1 billion each, in each of those licenses. There will also be the appropriate timelines that were in the Sarlo/Sweeney bill and that will address the ability to make this move quickly. After, if it's approved by the voters in November, that the process can then move quickly, so that if it's approved that North Jersey gaming projects can get moving as quickly as possible.

I thank Steve and Vincent very much for their hard work. We were working well into the late hours of last night, together and both of them continue to maintain good will, good humor, and the willingness and, in fact, the desire, to bring this to a positive resolution so I'm happy to continue to work with them on this and every other issue that we're going to work on together.

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