Much like Massachusetts, instead of sensible fiscal reform and enacting legislation to reduce corruption, Illinois instead believes money will fall from the heavens at no cost.
Ignoring the increased crime, poverty, Gambling Addiction, and yes, even increased SUICIDES, we have lost our moral compass when we believe preying on others makes fiscal sense.
Veto this defiant bill
Gov. Quinn, you need to trust Gov. Quinn on gambling expansion
Gov. Pat Quinn calls for an overhaul of
the proposed gambling legislation last October at a press conference at the
Thompson Center. (E. Jason Wambsgans, Chicago Tribune / July 15,
2012)
|
Last October, Gov. Pat Quinn rejected heavy pressure to approve a huge
expansion of casino gambling that legislators had passed. No, said Quinn, he
would veto that bill and any other that violated his "Framework for Gaming in
Illinois." That framework includes some excellent ultimatums that Quinn said any
expansion bill has to meet. It also infuriates lawmakers — chiefly his fellow
Democrats — who fatten their campaign funds with money from the gambling
industry.
During an Oct. 17 news conference, Quinn told sponsors of that monstrous bill: "Start over." They didn't. Instead they slightly improved their bill — the way a $99 paint job improves a jalopy.
Again, they passed it. Again, they're pressuring Quinn to sign it. Again, it manages to be too little, too much, and too burdened by spending provisions to ever deliver the exaggerated revenues its sponsors promise: The bill is woefully short on ethics protections. It expands gaming positions statewide from 12,000 to more than 32,000. And while Rep. Lou Lang, the House sponsor, has said the expansion could bring the state $300 million to $1 billion a year in new revenue, that looks preposterous: Three analyses we've seen — two for the state, one for gambling proponents — suggest that after subtracting legislative earmarks, enforcement costs and other expenses, the amount left for schools and capital projects wouldn't even reach $25 million.
Gov. Quinn, this isn't a painless decision, but it's a straightforward one. You need to trust — and enforce — the standards for integrity and scope that ... Gov. Pat Quinn himself articulated last October. Do that and you'll veto this dangerous bill.
Recognize too, Governor, the realpolitik here: This bill is a flat-out attempt to defy your standards.
The sponsors clearly are convinced that if they can generate enough news coverage quoting the inflated revenue and employment projections that their mega-expansion supposedly would create, then you'll cave or they'll find a way to beat you.
But don't take that from us. Take it from the bill's sponsors and the gambling lobbyists who dance them on puppet strings. They had more than seven months after your Oct. 17 dictum to draft and pass a bill you could sign. Instead they've served up slightly thicker gruel than their 2011 bill — no more gambling at Chicago's two airports or the State Fairgrounds, to name two of precious few improvements. But they flouted many of your demands to ensure honesty and integrity.
And now? Having sent you this 2012 bill, they're promising to meet some of your objections in a so-called trailer bill — a piece of follow-up legislation. Right. The gambling puppets double-pinkie-swear that, if only you'll sign their current bill, they'd be thrilled to give you some of what they refused to give you last fall, winter and spring. You were right to tell them Monday that they should have written this bill "right the first time." Or, you could have added, the second time.
As with the 2011 bill, the deeper we dig in the 2012 bill, the more defiance we find. By our reading, the legislation still doesn't let the Illinois Gaming Board terminate a Chicago casino license in case of corrupt practices. It still lacks necessary oversight for contracts at a Chicago casino. And in a nod to another gambling expansion lawmakers foisted on Illinois, it still doesn't require that communities opt into video gambling. Add to those and similar drawbacks the whatever-big-number-you-want-to-hear revenue projections and this bill is just begging to be vetoed.
Yes, Governor, they'll try to override your veto after the Nov. 6 election. But we'll all be watching to see whether lame ducks who'll be leaving the Legislature suddenly find self-serving reasons to support this huge expansion of gambling.
You were right, Governor, to insist last fall that the Illinois Gaming Board, which has successfully protected the integrity of Illinois gambling for more than two decades, needs unambiguous oversight of a Chicago casino. You were right to conclude that Illinoisans will tolerate a gambling expansion, but not one so huge that casinos and horse-track "racinos" cannibalize the current revenues to Springfield. You were right to insist that Illinois either will have the current video gambling rollout and no casino expansion, or a casino expansion but a much more restricted rollout of video gambling. But Illinois won't have both.
We urge this veto as longtime backers of a reasonable expansion plan, a Chicago casino included. Instead these bill sponsors have openly defied not only you, but any definition of "reasonable."
At some point, the gambling lobbyists will see what the rest of us see: These sponsors have spent too long avoiding ethics standards, over-promising revenues and writing bill language to settle their private grudges against the Gaming Board. Their bargaining has won them votes, but it cannot win citizens' trust.
Gov. Quinn, tell the sponsors and the lobbyists what you told them in October: "Start over.
During an Oct. 17 news conference, Quinn told sponsors of that monstrous bill: "Start over." They didn't. Instead they slightly improved their bill — the way a $99 paint job improves a jalopy.
Again, they passed it. Again, they're pressuring Quinn to sign it. Again, it manages to be too little, too much, and too burdened by spending provisions to ever deliver the exaggerated revenues its sponsors promise: The bill is woefully short on ethics protections. It expands gaming positions statewide from 12,000 to more than 32,000. And while Rep. Lou Lang, the House sponsor, has said the expansion could bring the state $300 million to $1 billion a year in new revenue, that looks preposterous: Three analyses we've seen — two for the state, one for gambling proponents — suggest that after subtracting legislative earmarks, enforcement costs and other expenses, the amount left for schools and capital projects wouldn't even reach $25 million.
Gov. Quinn, this isn't a painless decision, but it's a straightforward one. You need to trust — and enforce — the standards for integrity and scope that ... Gov. Pat Quinn himself articulated last October. Do that and you'll veto this dangerous bill.
Recognize too, Governor, the realpolitik here: This bill is a flat-out attempt to defy your standards.
The sponsors clearly are convinced that if they can generate enough news coverage quoting the inflated revenue and employment projections that their mega-expansion supposedly would create, then you'll cave or they'll find a way to beat you.
But don't take that from us. Take it from the bill's sponsors and the gambling lobbyists who dance them on puppet strings. They had more than seven months after your Oct. 17 dictum to draft and pass a bill you could sign. Instead they've served up slightly thicker gruel than their 2011 bill — no more gambling at Chicago's two airports or the State Fairgrounds, to name two of precious few improvements. But they flouted many of your demands to ensure honesty and integrity.
And now? Having sent you this 2012 bill, they're promising to meet some of your objections in a so-called trailer bill — a piece of follow-up legislation. Right. The gambling puppets double-pinkie-swear that, if only you'll sign their current bill, they'd be thrilled to give you some of what they refused to give you last fall, winter and spring. You were right to tell them Monday that they should have written this bill "right the first time." Or, you could have added, the second time.
As with the 2011 bill, the deeper we dig in the 2012 bill, the more defiance we find. By our reading, the legislation still doesn't let the Illinois Gaming Board terminate a Chicago casino license in case of corrupt practices. It still lacks necessary oversight for contracts at a Chicago casino. And in a nod to another gambling expansion lawmakers foisted on Illinois, it still doesn't require that communities opt into video gambling. Add to those and similar drawbacks the whatever-big-number-you-want-to-hear revenue projections and this bill is just begging to be vetoed.
Yes, Governor, they'll try to override your veto after the Nov. 6 election. But we'll all be watching to see whether lame ducks who'll be leaving the Legislature suddenly find self-serving reasons to support this huge expansion of gambling.
You were right, Governor, to insist last fall that the Illinois Gaming Board, which has successfully protected the integrity of Illinois gambling for more than two decades, needs unambiguous oversight of a Chicago casino. You were right to conclude that Illinoisans will tolerate a gambling expansion, but not one so huge that casinos and horse-track "racinos" cannibalize the current revenues to Springfield. You were right to insist that Illinois either will have the current video gambling rollout and no casino expansion, or a casino expansion but a much more restricted rollout of video gambling. But Illinois won't have both.
We urge this veto as longtime backers of a reasonable expansion plan, a Chicago casino included. Instead these bill sponsors have openly defied not only you, but any definition of "reasonable."
At some point, the gambling lobbyists will see what the rest of us see: These sponsors have spent too long avoiding ethics standards, over-promising revenues and writing bill language to settle their private grudges against the Gaming Board. Their bargaining has won them votes, but it cannot win citizens' trust.
Gov. Quinn, tell the sponsors and the lobbyists what you told them in October: "Start over.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-gamble-20120715,0,574973.story
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