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Newark arena add-ons might wreck the deal
Originally appeared in the Star Ledger on 09/06/01 BY DAVID KINNEY AND MATTHEW FUTTERMAN
The increasingly complicated and costly deal to build a
sports arena in Newark appeared on the verge of collapsing
under its own weight yesterday amid the fierce political
pressures of a hard-fought election season.
With the latest version of legislation to finance the project
facing a pivotal vote today, key legislators are balking at a
raft of expensive projects tacked on in recent weeks.
The proposal has grown from a plan to build a $355 million
home for the Nets basketball team and the Devils hockey
team into a sweeping construction blueprint that includes a
variety of projects to appease lawmakers from Cumberland
to Sussex counties.
Now the bill holds provisions that clear the way for, among
other projects, a minor league baseball stadium in Bergen
County, a civic center in Camden County and a
Disney-style entertainment complex in the Meadowlands.
The price tag, by some estimates, has soared to close to
$1 billion.
"Everybody's got their mouths in the trough," said one
Republican lawmaker.
Republican candidates fear polls showing that voters
oppose using state dollars to build the arena. And
Democrats are increasingly worried that GOP gubernatorial
nominee Bret Schundler's opposition to the arena may
jump-start his sagging campaign -- starting with his
testimony before an Assembly committee today.
After days of arm-twisting and furious lobbying, those on
both sides of the debate said they did not know if the plan
would clear the 11-member Assembly Appropriations
Committee today.
With five Republicans lined up against the deal and two
others wavering, Chairman Richard Bagger (R-Union) said
he may call off the vote: "There are a lot of questions. You
may see us not act until all the answers become clear and
the public debate on this plays itself out."
Even one of the arena's most ardent supporters,
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jim McGreevey, is
having doubts. He has asked the nonpartisan Office of
Legislative Services for a new calculation of the
legislation's price tag. The Woodbridge mayor said he has
"increasing concern regarding the inclusion of some wholly
unrelated expenditures into the legislation."
Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco, who sees the Newark
arena as a legacy for his brief tenure, is suddenly one of
the lone proponents of moving forward quickly.
DiFrancesco yesterday was counting on votes from the
Appropriations Committee's four Democrats, as well as
Bagger, his running mate for years, and Assemblyman
John Gibson (R-Cape May). Both Republicans were
wavering yesterday. Among the Democrats, Assemblyman
William Payne (D-Essex) said he would vote for the plan;
the others did not return calls seeking comment.
Despite the mounting opposition, DiFrancesco's
spokesman, Tom Wilson, said the governor's office
continues to push for the plan.
Assembly Speaker Jack Collins (R-Salem) was expected
to cancel today's committee meeting if there were not
enough votes to pass the bill, but the meeting was still on
the schedule last night. His spokesman, Chuck Leitgeb,
rejected talk that Collins might try to bypass the
committee and put the bill up for a vote in the full
Assembly.
"He's not going to pull a bill out of committee and send it to
the floor, especially for something of this magnitude," he
said.
The initial intent of the legislation was to finance
construction of the Newark sports arena. The teams'
owner, sports conglomerate YankeeNets, threatened to
take them out of New Jersey if the state did not help them
move to the downtown site within three years.
The plan on the table requires YankeeNets to kick in $115
million and for the state to issue $190 million in bonds.
Areas of Newark around the arena would become a "sports
and entertainment district," and sales taxes from that
district would pay off the bonds.
But from those relatively simple beginnings, the deal grew.
Hoping to garner support in Bergen County, DiFrancesco
proposed a similar district around the Meadowlands,
envisioning a Disney-like entertainment center.
The Senate passed the plan in June, but Collins balked
and presented the negotiators with his own wish list for
South Jersey projects.
The deal-making resulted in a 47-page bill moving through
the Legislature against the backdrop of the election.
"You know what happened here," one lawmaker said. "The
cost to the taxpayers is not coming from the arena. It's
coming from the cost of paying guys off for their votes."
Among the new projects is residential and commercial
development around a ski resort in Vernon Township,
which has brought environmentalists out against the deal.
Schundler has turned up the volume against the arena,
saying New Jersey should ask voters to approve the new
debt. Yesterday, he sent letters urging the Assembly to
vote down the bill should it come out of committee.
Many Republican legislators already are lined up against it
in the face of polls. One found that voters in Bergen
County, which would lose the two professional sports
teams, are 3-to-1 against the deal. Polls in Morris, Ocean
and Monmouth counties found similar results, sources in
both parties said.
Three committee members yesterday came out publicly
against it: Assemblywoman Clare Farragher (R-Monmouth)
and Assemblymen Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) and John
Kelly (R-Essex). Assemblywoman Connie Myers
(R-Hunterdon) and Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Morris)
also would vote no, sources said. They did not return calls
for comment.
YankeeNets officials have said further delays would keep
them from having the arena ready by 2004, which would
cost the company tens of millions of dollars.
YankeeNets yesterday named former National League
president Leonard Coleman chairman of the company's
development arm. Coleman, who has deep ties to state
government, said he already has spent weeks lobbying
lawmakers to pass the arena legislation.
Staff writer George Jordan contributed to this report.
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