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 Gov. Blagojevich's $3 billion
construction proposal could be in jeopardy after he announced
last week that a portion of the plan would be paid for with
expanding gambling across the state. Gov. Blagojevich last
week surprised legislative leaders in unveiling his plan
to expand gambling in Illinois by allowing Keno in
restaurants and bars across the state. The administration in
looking for ways to fund a proposed $3 billion construction
plan is looking to Keno to pay for $500 million in school
construction.
Blagojevich's administration contends that $80 million
in revenue would be derived from Keno; enough to satisfy the
bonds for school construction.
Opposition to the
plan was swift and came from many different sides including
leaders within Blagojevich's own party. Democratic State Sens.
Miguel Del Valle, Iris Martinez, Tony Munoz and Martin
Sandoval wrote the Governor last week that expanding "gambling
into our neighborhood taverns with keno would simply
exacerbate this problem.
We need a more reliable revenue stream for school
construction that does not impoverish our
communities."
In addition, the Illinois Casino Gaming Association
opposes the move for fear that Keno in every Illinois community will draw
off casino patrons.
Joining in opposition, Rev. Tom Grey of the National
Coalition Against Gambling Expansion likened Keno to
"crack-cocaine".
While Sen.
President Emil Jones has indicated he supports the Governor's
plan, Blagojevich contends that legislative approval is not
needed because Keno is so much like lottery games that the
Governor already has the authority to implement such a
plan. Late in the
week, such implementation
came into question because of the Governor's relationship
with the lobbyist for GTECH, an industry leader in Keno
gaming. John
Wyma, former chief of staff for Blagojevich's congressional
office, is now lobbying for GTECH which has consulted with the
administration for the past year on Keno in Illinois.
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During the same
week that Gov. Blagojevich proclaimed that he didn't have time
to campaign, he toured the state touting his $3B construction
spending plan while announcing new and expanded spending
programs in virtually every corner of the state. In responding to
criticism from his Democratic challenger, Edwin Eisendrath,
Blagojevich said, "I'm
just not going to get involved in all of that politics. I'm
doing my job every single day as governor. So I'm just going to
keep doing my job as governor and I'll let those who want to
do politics go out and do politics." While he WASN'T
campaigning this week, Blagojevich announced the following
projects in stops around the state:
Ø
$6.6 million for
expanded prison facility in Metro East
Ø
$5 million for
coal development
Ø
$2.4 million for
river development in the Quad Cities
Ø
$1.6 million for
development in Rockford
Ø
$1 million for
South Side Chicago Church
Ø
$500,000 for
economic development in Western
IL
Ø
$500,000 for
workforce development in Peoria
Ø
$150,000 for
cameras in Chicago Police cars
Ø
$500 tax credit
for fuel efficient cars
Ø
New Medicare
hotline for Senior Citizens
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U.S. Department of
Labor Secretary Elaine Chao recently established rules to
require unions who engage in political activities to report
such expenditures on an annual basis. At the start of 2006,
the Dept. of Labor has made such reports available on-line at
http://erds.dol-esa.gov/query/getOrgQry.do. The rule and site are
intended to assist union members to better understand how
their dues are utilized and where those dues are
spent.
The site allows
users to search union expenditures by union, affiliation or
union type.
Interested parties can also search by state. For instance, the
Illinois Education Association spent over $632,000 on lobbying
and political activities for the year July '04 to July
'05. |
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 State Sen. Gary Dahl went to unusual
lengths to ensure that an area teenager's plan to aid
hurricane victims was successful over the holidays. Seneca
teenager Rebecca Gieseker launched a book drive following
Hurricane Katrina to provide books for a school library in Tallahatchie
County, Mississippi. All told, Rebecca
collected over 1,800 pounds of books. She contacted Sen.
Dahl to see if his trucking firm could deliver the books as
part of another delivery. Sen. Dahl and his wife
were planning a vacation and ended up loading the donated
books into their RV and delivering them personally. Dahl said, "When we
think about young people nowadays, we don't think about them
in the frame of mind that we should," he said. "Most of them
are caring and giving and concerned about other people.
Rebecca is one of them. She has a passion for reading and felt
that everyone should have the same opportunity ... My part in
her project was extremely small."
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"Early
adjournment is good if it means the Legislature minimizes
government intrusions into our lives and keeps its hands out
of our pockets.
But early adjournment is not good if it
means important issues, from pension plans to ethics reform,
are postponed to another day." Read
the whole thing... |
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