The speaker was Tom Carver, executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, a state agency that, by statute, invests casino-generated money into development projects around the state. The audience, here yesterday, was a conference on Southeast New Jersey's economy co-sponsored by PlanSmart NJ, a Trenton-based regional planning organization, and Richard Stockton College.

Despite the rosy growth outlook, "we are faced with a dynamic, proactive private sector, but an inactive public sector," Carver told the audience of planners, government officials and others. "If we don't take the next step and become a true international resort, we will not succeed vs. the competition around us. We need a system to make it happen," he said, pointing to such challenges as a transportation master plan, housing and home rule.

And besides casino/resort development, one of the focal points for that growth figures to be Atlantic City International Airport. Emphasizing that potential, Sharon Gordon of the South Jersey Transportation Authority, which operates the airport, pointed out that the land area occupied by the facility is the equivalent of all of Philadelphia and Newark Liberty international airports, plus 60% of LaGuardia Airport all rolled into one.