Governor and leaders talk? That's news

Any actual forward movement has occurred so rarely during this year's General Assembly session that even a hint of progress is enough to draw attention -- maybe more than the event actually merits.

That could be the case when it comes to Wednesday's meeting in Chicago of Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the four state legislative leaders. After all, no concrete agreements on any issues emerged. But the fact that all five talked without apparent rancor and generally characterized the discussion as productive is worth noting simply because that just hasn't happened much this year.

The main subject was expanding Illinois gambling as a means to pay for a statewide capital program. That Illinois needs such a program to pay for school construction, road and bridge work, and transit is clear.

What's also increasingly clear is that the only way such a program is going to get off the ground anytime soon is through gambling expansion. More specifically, Chicago would get a casino. Existing casinos would be authorized to add new gambling positions. Two new suburban casinos -- one north and one south -- might or might not be part of the mix.

Critics can say, as we have several times, that gambling is not the ideal way to pay for essential government services. But this legislature is not going to agree on any other means of paying for capital programs. If the state is to get a needed capital program under way and to put up the matching funds needed to claim federal transportation money, it's gambling or nothing.

Not that gambling expansion is a done deal. House Speaker Michael Madigan remains skeptical and probably less than eager to align himself with a governor who has verbally ripped him and even sued him in recent weeks.

Madigan says he will hold hearings -- a good idea considering the magnitude of the proposed expansion -- and makes no promises about when or whether he might be willing to lend his support.

While the launch of a statewide capital program is important, so, too, is finding a way to boost operating funds for the RTA and its three service agencies: Metra, Pace and the CTA. Unfortunately, support is fading for the proposed Cook and collar-county sales tax increase designed to provide those operating funds. Lawmakers are understandably nervous about the prospect of raising the sales tax just as Cook County President Todd Stroger is talking about jacking up the county sales tax by 2 cents.

But before they defer to Stroger, state legislators -- at least those from Cook County -- ought to insist that Stroger demonstrate why it is that a poorly managed county needs to have that kind of revenue increase.

And finally, while legislators might be able to provide transit operating money from some other source, they must also make sure that an increase for the CTA goes hand-in-hand with proposed reforms to improve its efficiency.