Editorial: Jobs as bargaining chips

Friday, July 7, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

There was no need for the anxiety and private economic loss in Atlantic City over the past two days, occasioned by state-forced closure of 12 casinos, temporarily throwing more than 20,000 workers off their jobs.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine should not have drawn thousands of privately employed people into a budget problem that should have been wholly contained within state government.

Many states fail to reach agreement on their budgets by July 1, the first day of the new budget year. And sometimes their governors send home for a few days all of their employees except those deemed essential to critical state services.

But for a state to impose personal crises on privately employed people is wrong. Forcing the layoffs was particularly shameful because it required the tip-dependent workers of just one industry, in just one city, to shoulder the failings of the Legislature and governor's office.

The crisis began Saturday, when a majority of New Jersey legislators failed to approve the Democratic governor's proposal to raise the state sales tax in order to balance a budget deficit. Corzine then began ordering nonessential workers off the job, stating that he had no budget from which to pay their salaries.

Included in the "nonessential" class were the state's 190 casino inspectors. In New Jersey the law requires state inspectors to be within all casinos at all times, to ensure against skimming and other corruption.

When legislators failed to reach agreement by Tuesday, Corzine ordered all nonessential workers off the job, including the inspectors. But the fact that many "nonessential" workers remained on the job more than four days after the budget ran out on Saturday - so that state beaches and parks and the casinos could remain open through the busy holiday weekend - showed that Corzine had discretion. He could have declared gaming inspectors to be essential, allowing the casinos to remain open.

With the casinos closed, the Legislature was under terrible pressure to compromise on the sales tax issue, which it did on Thursday. The closure of the Atlantic City casinos was felt throughout the gaming industry, with the stocks of many Nevada corporations being affected.

Now that a governor has demonstrated he will use the law requiring on-site gaming inspectors as a lever, the New Jersey Legislature would be wise to pass a bill declaring the inspectors essential employees. They protect an important state revenue, an island city's dominant industry and innocent private workers from being used as bargaining chips.