Lottery deal to be tested
SPRINGFIELD - The fate of a potentially multibillion-dollar state construction-spending spree financed by leasing out the Illinois Lottery games could be decided by state House members this week.
The House returns to the Capitol today to begin a two-day session during which a vote on the lottery lease is expected. Here's a quick overview of the situation.
The deal: The state would lease out the lottery system for years to come, giving someone else the right to collect millions worth of losing lottery tickets in exchange for billions of dollars upfront that the state would use to finance construction projects. The governor has said the deal could garner $10 billion or more, though that number is questionable as there's no offer on the table.
What about schools? The lottery provides roughly 3 percent - $600-some million - of all K-12 public education spending annually. So far, lottery lease plans have called for setting aside a portion of the upfront payment to ensure the education budget is not shorted.
Insiders take: To outsiders this two-day session rightly appears rather incremental. But to insiders any indication that House Speaker Michael Madigan and Gov. Rod Blagojevich are working together would be monumental. The two have been bitter rivals but at the Democratic National Convention in Denver were prodded into a public hug in an alleged show of unity.
The optimist says: This could be a good-faith effort among the state's Democratic leaders to move ahead and put political gridlock behind them.
The skeptic says: Only the House is returning for a vote. The Senate is not, so this is a long way from being a deal. And the House is only considering the money-raising side of the equation, not the project-spending side that is sure to create its own controversies.
The cynic says: House Democrats have been blasted for blocking previous construction spending plans. They need political cover more than any actual deal heading into the heart of campaign season.
Also on the agenda: House members also could take up a variety of proposals that governor vetoed, most notably his changes to sweeping ethics legislation that would have banned businesses with state contracts from donating to the campaigns of those who award the contracts.
Lawmakers also could consider tapping millions of dollars sitting in special state bank accounts and using the money to restore funding the governor cut in order to balance Illinois' budget.