City casino dealt out of the game
STATE BUDGET | Gov makes concessions to pass capital spending plan
Gov. Blagojevich and three of the four legislative leaders agreed Thursday to scale back a stalled statewide construction program and ditch one of the most controversial ways to pay for it.
The revised plan was reduced from $34 billion to $25 billion and no longer relies upon a major gambling expansion, including a casino in Chicago that Mayor Daley opposes.
Instead, the capital plan would be supported by a partial lease of the Illinois lottery, which a House panel has already rejected, and a $200 million annual sales tax windfall to the state resulting from higher gasoline prices.
The closed-door Chicago meeting where Blagojevich presented the plan was not attended by House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), who says face-to-face sitdowns with the governor are not productive uses of his time.
"We have a governmental coalition that includes every legislative leader except for one," Blagojevich said. "If there's a way to pass a law to require him to come to meetings, we'll try to pass that, but he'll probably not call that bill."
Sitting in for Madigan, House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago) criticized the slimmed-down proposal as a hard sell for House Democrats and voters.
"People sold the lottery as a way of [funding] education," Currie said.
"To take the lottery and use it for some other purpose, I think, may not sit well with the people of Illinois."
Currie also said the governor's reluctance to sign legislation that bars state officeholders from accepting large political contributions from government contractors has fueled mistrust toward the governor among lawmakers.
Blagojevich is the only statewide officeholder still accepting donations from state contractors, including some who could cash in on a capital plan. Blagojevich said he would consider signing the ethics legislation as part of a packaged deal that would include passage of the construction program.