Fact check

Towards the end of yesterday’s public session, the CO of the office of mayor stated that the city has decreased the amount of money given to the Trenton Downtown Association to carry out its mission.

The CO, yet again, does not know what he is talking about. The principle funding source for the TDA is the special tax assessment levied upon all properties within the district. The money is collected by the city and turned over to the TDA.

The CO’s statement can be heard in Part Four of the video posted on the Times website, starting at about 5:11 and running to about 5:38. The key statement comes right about the time Anthony Roberts' phone rings.

Here’s a transcription of what he says during that segment, with emphasis on the part about reducing the amount TDA receives.

“We’re trying to work with TDA now to do some of our tree lightings and Christmas enhancements and ornaments and things of that nature. Um. So. Yeah. We need to do that. They’ve been. Um. Working with less. We’ve decreased the amount that we generally give to them. And we, we know they are doing the best they can with limited resources.”

The city simply cannot reduce the amount of money given to TDA out of the special assessment collected specifically for that purpose.

We verified with Christian Martin, the executive director of the TDA, that the city hasn’t reduced the funding.

Mr. Martin did add that TDA has stepped up and is “doing more in the sense that we are cutting grass and weeds, maintaining public spaces, managing waste inside and outside our district. We had to do this because the city completely stopped working on that front.”

So there you have it. The city has not reduced the funding given to TDA.

The city has reduced services that it previously provided.

What say you to those facts, Mr. Mack?