McHenry County won't leave video gambling decision to voters

Rejecting a proposal to let voters settle the debate over allowing video gambling in McHenry County bars and restaurants, county leaders instead decided Tuesday they would make the call themselves next month.

A closely divided McHenry County Board voted 13-10 against a Feb. 2 advisory referendum on the issue, killing what proponents said was the best way to inform leaders where the public stood in expanding gambling into local businesses.

Opponents of the referendum plan said the decision is one voters elected them to make.

"It's simply a delaying tactic and an approach to not making the hard decisions we have to make," board member Ersel Schuster said.

Noting past experiences with advisory referendums that showed little consensus among the public, board member Peter Merkel questioned whether the vote would be worth spending $17,000 to put a question on the ballot only to learn that voters are as narrowly split as the board.

"What we get paid to do is make these tough decisions," he said. "Since we're talking about gambling I'll say I bet we'll be back here in late February or early March having these same discussions (after a referendum). It's a cop out."

The advisory referendum proposal came out of a series of meetings and a public hearing held last month by the board's Liquor and License Committee. It's chairman, John Hammerand, opposes video gambling, but said he wanted to let voters have their say.

"We've had so much heated discussion and heard from so many impassioned people who have lost their jobs and look at this as a lifeline, I thought a referendum was in order," Hammerand said.

With the referendum issue settled, board members now will turn their attention to a likely Dec. 1 vote on an ordinance banning video gambling from the about 45 restaurants, bars and other eligible businesses located outside municipal borders. Lake, DuPage and Cook counties have approved similar measures, and Kane County leaders are expected to vote on one in December.

The state legislature authorized the gambling expansion this summer to help fund a $31 billion capitol spending bill. McHenry County is expected to receive tens of millions of dollars from the bill, causing some leader to fear that money would not be there if the county enacts a ban.

But State Sen. Pamela Althoff told board members Tuesday that state officials have made assurances the county will receive the funding and projects pledged to it in the capital bill, regardless of whether it allows video gambling.

However, she added, there is no guarantee that funding, or those projects, would arrive when expected.

"Some communities might be rewarded," she said.

That is an uneasy proposition for some, including Algonquin Village President John Schmitt, who said his community has waited long enough for projects like the $82 million Route 31 bypass west of the village's downtown.

"To see the capital bill come through and McHenry County for once not be a donor county was just astronomical," he said. "Now to see that there might be significant delays for these projects, or see them killed altogether, depending on a vote (by the county board) is disheartening."