The state of the State: As Bulls prove they're winners, can lawmakers do the same?

The state of the State

As Bulls prove they're winners,
can lawmakers do the same?

By CAROLINE A. GHERARDINI

Was that a trombone blaring in the background on the eve of the legislature's scheduled return to Springfield after a three-week hiatus? No one was listening much to those trombones since the really sweet music blasting across Illinois was the Chicago Bulls' victory on June 20.

Yet as everyone celebrated the Bulls' thrice-repeated national championship, the state's legislative leaders and the governor were still playing their end-of-session game: How to end the session so everyone is perceived a winner.

Back on May 11 when the Bulls still needed to beat Cleveland in the first round of playoffs, Illinois lawmakers were supposed to have only two weeks remaining to meet their self-imposed end-of-session May 28 deadline. But then those trombones started playing again.

The sound was reminiscent of three years ago when smoothtalking gambling salesmen promised an antidote to local economic development troubles. They wound up selling the provincials from the river cities that gambling was "good" business, at least when done on riverboats and with some direct moneys going to both state and local government.

Chicago was not part of that original riverboat gambling deal, but then last year Mayor Richard M. Daley decided, yes, Chicago did need casinos. He didn't want gambling on what he called putt-putt boats but instead on a giant land-based casino-entertainment complex as a big economic development boost.
Last year, however, those slick gambling salesmen couldn't sell their music lesson illusion to legalize land-based casinos in Chicago. This year they came back but with a new plan. Seems these business types in the U.S. gambling industry are entrepreneurial; they want to make a profit in the big city market of Chicago. So plans changed to conform to the governor's insistence that maybe the state should legalize gambling in Chicago as long as it was all done on a boat that floats — maybe in a moat? The dilemma with casinos on land is tied to current U.S. interpretation of the rights of Native American tribes to run gambling establishments: Any state with laws legalizing gambling on land within its borders cannot forbid Native American tribes to operate gambling in the state.

Trombones for gambling in Chicago. Tubas against taxes in the suburbs. Clarinets. Xylophones. Drums. It was more like three weeks of discordant blaring, oompahing, trilling, tinkling and booming

By mid-May in Springfield and Chicago and from Joliet to Quincy to Car-

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bondale, anyone attempting to fathom what sort of final deals were pending for rubberstamping in the General Assembly had caught the first trombone blasts that the deal would very likely include legalizing gambling in Chicago. House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-22, Chicago), recognizing that Chicago actually had a business that wanted to locate in the city, suggested in mid-May that the gambling interests should compete for the license. Too bad he didn't suggest that the first gambling entrepreneur who would guarantee to cover the Chicago schools' $418 million deficit would get the prize. Or maybe he should have suggested setting aside special "granny" weekend gambling dates when the casino operators would commit their profits to replace the nursing home tax hated so much by suburban Republicans.

Unlike the national basketball championship when every team knows only one winds up the winner, the end-of-session game in Springfield is played by Republican and Democratic leaders who all want to go home winners to their respective constituents in Chicago, the suburbs and downstate. Gov. Jim Edgar also wants to be a winner, especially with his plan to keep the income tax surcharge set to expire June 30 but with revenues shifted to the state instead of cities. Chicago wants legalized gambling to help fatten its future city coffers. Republican suburban interests especially want to eliminate the state tax on nursing homes, the so-called granny tax that helps finance Medicaid.

The list goes on, but it seemed as mid-May turned to late May and then mid-June, all the top lawmakers and other state politicos were still practicing their music on those make-believe instruments. Trombones for gambling in Chicago. Tubas against taxes in the suburbs. Clarinets. Xylophones. Drums. It was more like three weeks of discordant blaring, oompahing, trilling, tinkling and booming.

With the state's new fiscal year beginning July 1 and neither the legislative leaders nor the governor wanting any repeat of an overtime session, the pressure was on to come up with the final deals. As the magazine was going to press, however, all bets were off on when the session would end.

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