EDC is primarily funded through the state's UEZ Authority. Commercial districts in cities designated as Urban Enterprise Zones, as Jersey City, have a  reduced state sales tax of 3% rather than the regular 6%.  It's an incentive for shoppers to buy locally and create local jobs.  The collected sales tax which typically went back to the State is funneled back to the city through EDC. 

Latest   2/10/2002

The autonomous agency's chief financial officer, Joel M. Elam, who was hired in the spring of 2000, was fired and arrested for forgery and suspected theft of $49,500 on Wednesday after acknowledging responsibility for the missing funds, according to Mayor Glenn Cunningham's office.  According to a police investigation led by Police Director James Carter, 17 checks were written to Elam between September 2000 to November 2001. Other charges in connection with those checks involve EDC funds that were wrongfully lent to personnel and the misuse of an official-signature stamp, qualifying as forgery. Elam was released on a $750 bail bond Thursday.

During the spring of 1999, JC's Economic Development Corp (EDC) headed up by Stuart Kopperweiss, was fined over $110,000 by the IRS for knowingly paying off-duty UEZ police officers on a 1099 as opposed to a W2.  EDC was evading matching FICA taxes, and paying pension and workman's comp costs.   A citizen CPA, whose tax clients included many police officers, was repeatedly shouted down by Councilmen Tom DeGise & Bill Gaughan when she brought the issue up at ward meetings. Consequently, she contacted the IRS, filed a complaint and received an $11,000 award, 10% of the penalty.  The question is, have they paid the penalty and the back taxes?

"Adieu to UEZ cops… Mayor says city can't afford them" by Stan Eason of the JJ, 6/26/99. "Today is the last day Jersey City's shopping districts will be able to look to off-duty cops for security, because the state says the city is not chipping in its fair share to the urban enterprise zones…. Jersey City was put on notice a year ago that it had until July 1 (1999) to meet all standards governing UEZ spending. Among them was a statute stating that municipalities must contribute 20 percent of any money used to hire off-duty cops for security, John Hanson, executive director of the state Urban Enterprise Authority said.…"Mayor Schundler, who is considering massive layoffs, said he simply can't afford to give 20 percent, or $640,000 of the annual $3.2 million operating costs of the police security patrols…. Funding for the patrols and other UEZ programs comes from the reduced state sales tax rate consumers pay at stores (3%) in designated UEZ areas (almost the entire city).   The state UEZ Authority then doles the revenue back to the cities and allows them to design programs to enhance business. Other municipalities that hire police for security include Newark, Paterson and Elizabeth, all of who have been paying the 20 percent since the program's inception, Hanson said. Jersey City, however, has been in violation of the statute since it began the patrols more than three years ago."

A full page ad in the JC Reporter dated 11/17/96 paid by EDC, headlines with " Bye for Now!!!   More than 800 decorative planters that have been placed throughout Jersey City's shopping districts are being removed for the winter.  But...     They'll be back..."   See the SPCA section on the city's refusal to pay them until the City lost in court  but at the same time EDC had money for flower pots.

These planters are a typical Schundler example of fluff PR at the expense of citizen safety.   See the Police section where the City declined Clinton's COPS grant money and hired  NIDs', unlicensed, poorly trained city inspectors/ Schundler campaign workers. 

On Saturday, 3/3/01 there was an amusing but true JJ Letter to the Editor...  No Reason to brag from Joe in JC and it reads.     "We ask Mayor Schundler, naturally to fix potholes, we get flowers.  We ask for a fence around the parks so they don't look like hay fields, we get flowers.  We ask for trees, we need oxygen, we get flowers.  We ask for bus stops to be painted, six years they haven't been painted, we get flowers.  Well, we ask to stop drivers from flying on Jersey City streets, we get flowers, etc, etc..  So what we ask, is he doing bragging with his cars he bought for the police.  Big Deal!"

You can bet the North Arlington nursery will be back planting the reddish planters this spring.  More will get vandalized with fewer cops on the street...  How does using a North Arlington nursery with them using their suburban guys create jobs in JC?  

Word is that the dozens of  display print ads and radio commercials  for Schundler's "Homecoming" in October 2000 was charged to EDC.   Remember back in 1999, Schundler couldn't afford the 20% of salaries for police to work the EDC posts  but in October 2000, with no budget yet approved, he had tens of thousands of dollars for advertising, brochures, staff overtime salaries, buses etc. for the "Homecoming" week-end.

Not surprising, EDC has been overspending their administrative budget for the last 3 years and requested additional funding from the State, which was denied.  Recently (last fall), they've laid off many "consultants" and many of the "little people" who worked there so as to meet payroll.