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***MULTIMEDIA PACKAGE*** Speaker Prieto on Assembly Passage of Atlantic City Economic Recovery Legislation

(TRENTON) — Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson) issued a multimedia package Thursday following the General Assembly’s passage of new economic recovery legislation (A-2569 and A-2570) for Atlantic City.

The multimedia package consists of Speaker Prieto’s comments on the new compromise bills — legislation that respects Atlantic City’s right to self-governance and worker’s rights while providing reasonable benchmarks to put the city back on sound fiscal footing — and audio and a transcript of same.

The video can be accessed directly via our website — www.assemblydems.com — or by clicking here.

The audio file is available upon request.

A transcript of Speaker Prieto’s comments is appended below:

Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson):
“Well, I feel that this is what I was asking all along. When I sat before the committee on April 14, I said I put forward a bill that I thought would be a compromise that we could work off of, and wanted a seat at the table.

“This is a compromise that we have worked out together. It actually is what the Assembly was looking for. Something that it would give Atlantic City the ability to be able to reach a state of healthiness and this does that. It doesn’t trample on collective bargaining on day one. It keeps the self-governance. It keeps the civil liberties of the residents of Atlantic City. The people they elected to be able to make decisions, it gives them a time frame to put a balanced budget for calendar year 17 to be able to be successful, and a five-year plan, how are they going to achieve balanced budgets for those subsequent years.

“So, it’s something that it gives them the tools to be able to be successful. And again, it’s not a takeover on day one because that, to me, was one of the most egregious problems the other bill had.

“We want Atlantic City to stand on their own.

“I feel that we got into a place that this is something everybody could live with. I think when you compromise, it makes it a better bill. Not everybody gets everything that they wanted. This is something that now the administration of Atlantic City can roll up their sleeves with their workforce and I think we’re giving them an opportunity to again be the jewel of New Jersey.”