Gov. Christie: Camden’s Growth Is The Direct Result Of Bipartisan Cooperation

Transcript:

Governor Christie: I remember meeting with Mayor Redd soon after I became Governor in 2010 and we confronted a city that was in crisis with high crime rates, with a failing education system, with private sector disinvestment, and a general lack of faith by many that that could be changed. We determined that day that that was unacceptable for a city with as much potential as this city truly has. And so, working in partnership with the Senate President and other leaders at the county and local level, Mayor Redd and I set off to try to see if Camden could truly be transformed. Now, nearly eight years later, the City is experiencing drastically reduced crime based upon the reforms and changes made to law enforcement, an incredibly ascendant education system led by dynamic new leadership with community input that is transforming the look of the K-12 education system in the city, and brand new state-of-the-art corporate facilities that are making Camden, once again, not a place where business wants to disinvest, but a place where business sees, as Holtec saw, an extraordinary opportunity to invest. More than $3 billion in private investment has been made in Camden since Mayor Redd and I had that meeting in 2010, a creation of over 3,500 new jobs, more than 14,000 construction jobs, and a retention of nearly 3,500 jobs. In fact, the $260 million investment that we are making here with Dr. Singh represents the largest single investment of private capital in the history of the City of Camden. And this equally importantly, this is a project that is investing in the people of Camden. The company anticipates training and employing over a thousand employees from the city and nearby towns. That creates hope for the city of Camden. Holtec has worked with the Corporate Training Institute at Camden County College to create a welding program to help participants learn skills specific to this company’s manufacturing processes and the State has stepped up with training grants to help in that process as well. Holtec is well on track to have approximately 400 employees on site by the end of this month. Impressively, the company estimates that local craft employment at the facility is going to approach 2,000 in the first five years of operation. All of this demonstrates what Lou and Steve mentioned in their remarks if we determine that we’re going to work together on those things where we share a common interest rather than let our differences prevent us from working together we can actually get things done