A million dollars for this state budget?

SPRINGFIELD -- The long, strange, increasingly expensive quest for a state budget took yet another odd political twist Thursday when Chicago officials reportedly began lobbying against a casino for the city.

"The host city is against the bill," House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, told reporters late Thursday. The comments immediately reverberated through the Capitol.

In recent days, a city casino emerged as the possible cure for the state's lingering budget deadlock, with the state's nearly $1 billion take from expanded gambling eyed for education funding and paying off more than $8 billion in construction borrowing.

Now that plan's in limbo, and the legislative session that began back in January careens further into overtime. The added weeks of special budget sessions at the Capitol have cost taxpayers nearly $1 million.

House and Senate leaders thought they had a deal -- and still might -- on a $59 billion state-spending plan that contains no tax increases but rather balances a nearly $2.2 billion increase mostly with rosy economic projections for the coming year.

The House approved it Thursday 99-9 and the Senate followed with a 52-5 approval shortly after midnight. However, because of what were described as a few glitches, the plan would have to go back to the House for a final vote. Legislative leaders had then hoped to deliver a budget to Gov. Rod Blagojevich and await his expected veto.

But Madigan adjourned the House until today, meaning there'd be no vote. He then dropped the Chicago casino shocker. The Senate also planned on debating a Chicago casino deal, but that appeared to fall by the wayside amid growing political dissension.

"I have been lobbying against it, too. Right now, I think it's killed," said state Sen. Terry Link, a Waukegan Democrat who wants a casino for that city added to any deal. "I want a more comprehensive solution. If you're going to do this, let's do it the correct way."

Blagojevich opposed more gambling but flipped when the Senate offered to use additional casinos to finance his new health coverage program. Neither the added casinos nor the health insurance plan came to fruition as lawmakers blew past their May 31 deadline to strike a budget deal. A temporary budget was passed for July to keep the state running, but it, too, expired and Illinois began August with no budget.

And as the session dragged on, gambling re-emerged as a potentially politically agreeable way to boost education funding and pay for billions' worth of new roads and bridges, which gained newfound importance in the wake of the Minneapolis bridge collapse. Illinois has gone more than five years without any new, major investment in roads and bridges while the backlog of repairs grows annually.

The initial budget plans being considered by the House and Senate do not include such widespread construction spending. After midnight the Senate's first attempt to pass a construction plan was voted down.

But Blagojevich tore into the House budget plan, saying it skimped in key areas but was so full of lawmakers' pork projects it was hard to hold.

"It's so greasy," Blagojevich said.

Indeed, sweetening the deal for lawmakers are millions of dollars for projects back home. It's estimated each of the 118 House members would get nearly $650,000 worth of project funding, while each of the 59 senators receives nearly $1.3 million.

The listing of projects runs more than 400 pages in the nearly 1,400 page budget plan. They range from $1 million for North Central College's new performance center to $20,000 so Elk Grove Village can host a delegation from Sicily. In between are projects for schools, the disabled, parks and myriad other causes.

Although Blagojevich bashed the spending, he could not name a single unworthy project when pressed by reporters. But he warned he'll keep lawmakers at the Capitol until he gets what he wants.

"At the end of the day, whether we finish today, tomorrow, next week or next month, we need to get a budget for people that does all the right things for people," Blagojevich said, "a budget that helps them and doesn't hurt them."