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Atlantic City Casinos May Open This Friday

A deal has been reached by Gov. Jon Corzine and New Jersey state lawmakers which could signal the end of the shutdown of nonessential government services including Atlantic City's casinos.

All 12 of Atlantic City's casinos were forced to stop operations Wednesday morning due to the New Jersey state budget impasse, a move that had an adverse impact on casino stock shares.

Friday afternoon should see the Legislative committees considering the budget to clear the way for lawmakers to vote on the new state budget. The governor would then have to sign an executive order that would officially end the shutdown.

In addition to the casinos, the impasse also closed state agencies, beaches, parks and the lottery--- services that fall under nonessential government services.

The compromise plan was announced Thursday, the same plan that the Gov. Corzine has proposed from the start. They would be increasing the state sales tax from 6 percent up to 7 percent. However, deviating from the original proposal of Corzine, wherein all the money would go to making up for the $4.5 billion budget deficit, half of the $1.1 billion that would be raised would be used to ease property taxes.

"We have much more to do in the coming months and years to fix our state's public finances," Corzine cautiously said.