Xanadu Isn't Infrastructure, Unless You're A Teenage Girl

Gov. Chris Christie’s decision to put his considerable political capital behind � of all things � a mall shows a lapse in judgment, at best.

Nearly a decade ago, then-Gov. Jim McGreevey championed Xanadu, a $1.3 billion “shopper-tainment” complex in Bergen County. Xanadu was an old-school boondoggle. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars in public support, it failed after the 2008 financial collapse and sits empty.

Tuesday, Christie stood with the mall’s new developers and promised that “it’s finally going to move forward.” The governor offered $200 million in new support to the project, which has a new name � American Dream � and a not-so-dreamy new price tag: $3.7 billion.

Christie’s support is inconsistent with his values. The Republican governor should understand that there’s no place for public money in a mall, even one with indoor ski slopes.

If Xanadu’s new owners and lenders thought that American Dream’s prospects were stellar, they’d fund the thing themselves.

That Xanadu-cum-American-Dream wasn’t Christie’s idea is no excuse. Now that Christie has stuck up for Xanadu, the public could hold him responsible if the project runs over budget again � meaning that more taxpayer money is potentially at risk.

Nor can Christie’s administration argue that it’s designing the subsidy to protect taxpayers, perhaps even giving them a share of profits.

It’s likely that Christie’s financial folks will design the subsidy as debt backed by future tax revenues. Many states, including New Jersey, have argued that this type of subsidy is better than cash because the future taxes wouldn’t exist without state support.

But giving away future tax revenues is no better than giving away today’s. Voters wouldn’t like it if Christie took $200 million out of this year’s budget to give to real-estate developers. Structured tax-supported financing is the same thing, in disguise, and pushes bigger deficits onto future governors’ watches.

Picking and choosing particular projects doesn’t “create” future tax revenues anyway.

Adding a new tax break to New Jersey’s storied legacy of special tax favors drives away jobs. Good businesses don’t want to deal with bad politics. When government gives a tax break to one company, taxes for everyone else go up, over time, to make up for the shortfall.

Christie didn’t start this bad habit, but he’s continuing it.

As for the idea of giving taxpayers a cut of future profits: here’s an idea. Let government stick to what it should do and return any extra money lying around to taxpayers so they can make their own investment decisions.

Instead of setting a new tone, Christie is singing the same old song. Christie says further that the unfinished Xanadu complex is an eyesore, justifying the state’s involvement.

Yet many buildings are unattractive. New Jersey is in an historic fiscal crisis. Residents could put up with an affront to their refined aesthetic tastes a little longer.

Christie didn’t win office running against bad architecture; he is not the Prince of Wales.

The governor has missed an opportunity to demonstrate what really creates jobs: besides lower and simpler taxes and public safety, good public infrastructure.

Budgeting is about choices � now just how to spend money, but how to spend time.

Remember: last year, Christie cancelled a $9.2 billion tunnel to New York, noting worry about costs. Now, Christie has chosen to spend his finite time and taxpayers’ finite money on a mall, which is not public infrastructure, over the rail project, which was.

New Jersey needed that tunnel. The tri-state region is dense - meaning that if we’re to keep our population and our Congressional seats, we’ve got to grow even denser. We can’t do that without better commutes, which help determine the quality of life that attracts people and jobs.

Two decades from now, American Dream is likely to be another long-forgotten political vanity project. But without farsighted public investment now, New Jersey residents will be suffering ever-more miserable and crowded commutes. Subsidized indoor skiing ain’t gonna take the edge off.

Christie was right to address concerns over the Access to the Region’s Core tunnel. Should the feds have paid more, or should New York have paid some of the cost?

But only one of these projects is critical to Jersey’s future. It’s not the one with the indoor water park.

This piece originally appeared in The Star-Ledger

This piece originally appeared in The Star-Ledger