TRENTON – It was a story in Rolling Stone that sized everything up.

The headline in that 2013 piece said it all. “Apocalypse New Jersey: A dispatch from America’s most desperate town.” Yes, it was about Camden.

That was only six years ago, but things have changed a lot since – radically in fact, some say.

Dana Redd, the city’s former mayor, and a procession of other speakers told a state Senate panel Monday that all signs in Camden are pointing up.

Business is coming back to town. The school system is doing a better job. Homicides are down 67 percent since 2013, and overall crime is down 50 percent, A hotel is about to open, the first in the city in three decades. News of a hotel produced at least one “wow” from the lawmakers.

The theme here was that all the good things are happening, because of state incentive grants.

Redd, for her part, did mention a complete reshuffling of police protection. During the Christie years, the city police department was abolished in favor of a Camden County police force. The idea was more accountability and the elimination of an entrenched bureaucracy.

Still as Redd put it, “Without this tool, (incentive grants) no business would have come to Camden.”

That’s probably an exaggeration, but you got the point – the state must help businesses thinking of moving to such places as Camden.

That in itself is not a novel concept. Many states have some type of incentive program.

But here we come to the politics.

Gov. Murphy earlier this year pointed to the $11 billion in tax credits awarded over the years by the state Economic Development Authority, mostly on Christie’s watch. Or perhaps he saw that many of the grants went to not only Camden businesses, but to those connected to local political boss George Norcross, a Murphy nemesis.

The governor cried foul and quickly put together a task force to examine the program. That panel has spent much of its time demonstrating how grants were awarded to the politically connected. And just to emphasize the point, the governor vetoed a bipartisan bill to extend the grant program after it expired on June 30.

The Senate formed its own group to look at the grants. It is taking the opposite approach. At an earlier meeting, senators seemed miffed that grants awarded prior to June 30 have not yet been received. And on Monday, it heard glowing reports about the program.

Besides politicians, various businesses, including American Water Company and Campbell’s soup (through written testimony) described something that sounded like Mayberry on the Delaware,

Employees working in Camden are happy and safe, they said.  And they are getting involved in the community. And hundreds, if not thousands, of the jobs created by tax incentives went to city residents.

Sen. Declan O’Scanlon, a Monmouth County Republican, asked one of those questions to which he already knew the answer.

Would all this increased economic activity be happening without the grants?

The answer of course was no.

Seeking to make a political point, O’Scanlon said he hoped the governor was listening to the hearing. A few minutes later, he ridiculed Murphy’s talk of $11 billion in grants, saying he doesn’t think the recipients are collectively strolling around with 11 billion bucks in their pockets. Just for the record, companies do not actually get a bag full of money; they generally get tax credits as they create jobs and meet other targets.

Sen Joe Pennacchio of Morris County is the committee’s ranking Republican.

He acknowledged that political considerations should not influence EDA grants.

“I’m hoping that’s not the case here,” he said.