Region Seen as NJ's Growth Driver

ATLANTIC CITY-”The major growth in New Jersey is going to happen here. We are the driver, and it’s all private money. We are into economic development–we can be the impetus.”

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.