Same old same old as lawmakers quickly call it a day
The calendar says November, but it's beginning to look like July all over again at the Illinois Capitol.
Major financial issues face the General Assembly. There is no resolution in sight. And Gov. Rod Blagojevich is again threatening to call lawmakers into daily special sessions.
The 18th such session he's called this year passed quickly and quietly Thursday with lawmakers apparently no closer to agreement on a mass transit funding bill and a public works construction program that would be financed with money from expanded gambling. Both the House and Senate met only briefly on a day that was supposed to be devoted to dealing with those issues.
House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, sent representatives home with no firm plans to return until Jan. 9. However, he also warned them that they could be called back to Springfield before then if developments warrant.
Blagojevich, though, said the mass transit/capital funding issues must be resolved before Christmas, and he threatened to use his favorite tactic if things don't get moving.
"We are considering the possibility of daily special sessions if this process continues to drag on and we can't reach a consensus on a (mass transit) funding solution and a capital bill," Blagojevich said Thursday during a brief appearance before reporters. "There is the possibility we could have special sessions every day as we get closer and closer to Christmas."
Blagojevich made the same threat last summer when he began calling daily special sessions on July 5 to deal with the state budget. He kept it up for a little more than a week before giving lawmakers a day off.
Chicago-area mass transit systems need an infusion of cash to avoid service cuts and fare increases. Blagojevich arranged a temporary fix that will keep the systems running normally until mid-January, but lawmakers are still working on a permanent funding plan.
Complicating that is that downstate lawmakers from both parties in the House and Senate also want a capital bill that will finance billions of dollars in road and bridge, school and other public works projects. They are withholding their votes from a mass transit funding bill until a capital bill is approved, feeling that is the only way they can ensure a capital bill will get passed.
"I said from day one both of these issues are extremely contentious," Madigan said. "Taken separately, they're monster issues."
Madigan wants to keep the issues separate, but the other legislative leaders and Blagojevich say they are linked, making it that much more difficult to resolve both.
Before there can be a capital bill, lawmakers have to agree on a way to pay for it.
The only option under discussion is a massive and controversial expansion of gambling.
"I'm all for a capital bill, but the idea that the only way you get that is to turn Illinois into Las Vegas, I think that's a bad policy for the state and a horrible legacy," said Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, after House Democrats were briefed on the outline of a gambling-expansion plan that includes a Chicago casino, a new riverboat casino and expansion of existing casinos.
Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, a leading proponent of expanded gambling, said after the meeting that he senses Democrats acknowledge the need for it, but that many details still need to be hammered out.
"It takes a significant period of time to put it together," Lang said. "I think we have an opportunity to move a gaming bill in the House in the next weeks."
Madigan, Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson, R-Greenville, and House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego, have been meeting to work out a capital/gambling package. Neither Blagojevich nor Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, have been part of the discussions.
"The plan was that we would meet and try to get some sort of consensus," Watson said. "That's what we are doing. They we'll take that back to (Blagojevich and Jones) and try to see if there is some agreement."
Blagojevich asked to meet with all four legislative leaders in his office Thursday. However, Madigan declined to attend, and Cross and Watson left quickly.
"We were there to tell the governor that there wasn't going to be a meeting," Cross said.
Blagojevich said he wants to resume negotiations with the four men in Chicago Monday morning. Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said the speaker is unable to attend at the time suggested by the governor and that they'll try to arrange an alternative time.
Bernard Schoenburg and Adriana Colindres of GateHouse News Service contributed to this report. Doug Finke can be reached at (217) 788-1527 or doug.finke@sj-r.com.