TRENTON, N.J. — The city whose Democratic mayor said GOP Gov. Chris Christie’s administration tied Hurricane Sandy aid to her support for a real estate project has, so far, received a level of aid from state-run programs that is similar to what other towns got, a review of grant data shows.
Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer is no longer discussing her allegations that New Jersey’s second-largest city has been shortchanged on Sandy funds, that its aid is being held “hostage” as political leverage or that she feared further retribution.
The state awarded $25 million for energy projects to help deal with outages. Hoboken received $142,080 — the same amount as 39 other recipients.
The state also provided money to communities hit by the storm to hire experts and come up with long-term recovery plans. Hoboken’s $200,000 grant was the fourth-highest allocation among the 35 local governments in the program.
Her spokesman, Juan Melli, said the fact that Hoboken is about on par with other towns in getting a modest amount of aid from state-run programs doesn’t mean the city has received what it deserves, given the damage it suffered in the flooding.
The problem, he said last week, is that New Jersey hasn’t created Sandy aid programs designed to help places like Hoboken, which is across the Hudson River from New York City.
A week ago, Zimmer said that two of Christie’s top Cabinet members told her in May that Sandy aid would be linked to whether she supported a real estate development that the administration favors. A Christie spokesman called her version of events “categorically false.”
