The Governer with a Fast Pen – Expansion of Gambling in Illinois

The Battles over who will be on top of the new expansion of gambling in Illinois is long under way, as proponents say it will raise millions of dollars in needed funds for the beleaguer state coffers. Let’s look at the track record (no pun intended) to date.

Governor Quinn has vetoed 2 previous attempts at passing an Expansions of Gambling in Illinois and The 3rd attempt is looking like it too will fail as this writer reviews the bill and tends to side with the governor’s reasoning.

Superficially the bill if signed into law will bring in much needed money for Education and the States out of control pension liability. But in reality the bill looks more like a special interest’s dream come true.

The Mayor of Chicago wants to control the gambling in Cook County taking the power out of the hands of state legislators and putting it under the control of an appointed board of directors.

Cook County is not exactly noted for its fair a even application of the law. If you will note the release of over 100 wrongly convicted citizens and the current number of scandals associated with political pull and corruption. The homeowner tax Scandal, The misdeeds of the former executive director of the Republican Party who is now running the bash for the republican try at the governor’s job. So, the corruption in Cook County knows no political boundary lines. Or management issues and the currently rising unrest and the county morgue. Anyone remember a certain Governor who tried to sell Obama’s state senate seat and is now in prison. The latest scandal involving a Rutherford Employee at its center now being given a plum position working for the Chicago Recorder of Deeds. Can you detect a pattern yet?

With this kind of environment, you want to throw into the mix millions of dollars in Gambling casinos and Electronic Slots. The power moguls of Chicago at which one point was considering the Thompson center as the site for a downtown gambling casino.

The only question remains is not if there is going to be corruption as Cook County as already demonstrated its considerable creativity and skill at bamboozling the public. But, how much money will actually make it to fund the stated aim of keeping the already in debt Chicago public schools running. Even with closing of 50 schools and 1,000 teachers laid off. The bill for 2014 for Chicago’s public schools is topping out at a whopping 5.6 billion dollars. Where is this money going to come from? The Chicago pension debt alone is $18,596 dollars for every person now living in Chicago proper.

Detroit has declared bankruptcy and Chicago may not be far behind as the taxpayers of 2039 will be paying off the 1993 bond debt. Chicago has tripled its debt load between 2002-2012 alone. When they admit that we they can’t live outside their means?

So please forgive me if I sound doubtful of the mayor and the county board to manage the additional responsibility and potential opportunity for more graft, greed, and corruption by letting control of casinos fall under their tender mercies. They have already shown their ineptitude at managing the basic running of city services such being unable to fund something as basic as education and county-wide management in general. I for one am happy the Governor has a ready pen. Illinois is on the brink and needs to proceed very cautiously into the future.