He backed away from his demand that the Legislature approve a budget before he would consider approval for a capital projects plan for the state. He went ahead and signed into law the program that will provide $31 billion to pay for assorted public works projects (new roads and government buildings, along with significant overhauls of existing facilities) all across the state.
THAT MEANS A lot of communities will be able to claim they got something from state government – and not some esoteric concept that one has to think a lot about in order to see.
It will be actual concrete and steel. Repaired roads. A new fire truck for the local department. Things that can actually be seen and touched.
It is the first capital projects program since then-Gov. George Ryan pushed for “Illinois First,” which paid for many municipal projects and gained the goodwill of local politicos for Ryan all across the state (even though the ideologues consider the additional money spent for the projects to be as heinous a happening as anything he might have done to free death row inmates or look the other way at unqualified truck drivers getting licenses).
So in theory, Quinn gave people something to take back home. Could it be that they might be willing to turn around on Tuesday when the General Assembly convenes in Springfield and vote to approve a $59 billion budget that includes some sort of income tax hike to raise revenues in order to balance it?
IT’S NOT LIKELY.
Many of the legislators who are inclined to be ideologues when it comes to taxation will still vote “no,” while others may very well find their own issue to be disgusted with.
Gambling.
For it turns out that Quinn’s capital projects plan is paid for in part by making those video poker machines in bars and restaurants (the ones that supposedly are for entertainment purposes only, and not for gambling) fully legitimate.
LOCAL COPS WILL no longer be able to raid some bar’s back room and smash the video poker machines as part of a stunt to make it look as though they’re being tough on crime – because the machines will now be legal.
In theory, the state will tax the money made off the machines, which will produce money to pay for all the construction projects that will take place across Illinois in the next year or two.
But when it comes to gambling, there are always the moralists who would just as soon have it all outlawed. They would have you believe that Illinois became Gomorrah when the first riverboat casinos were allowed – even though many of the communities that have a riverboat casino rely desperately upon their share of the local proceeds to balance out their own municipal budgets.
AND THEY WILL be joined by the law enforcement types – some of whom are eager to keep raiding those bars.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart (who himself was once a member of both the Illinois House of Representatives and the state Senate) claims the social costs of legitimizing gambling is not worth the additional revenue the state might derive by granting video poker the legitimacy of the law.
There will be some legislators who will be more than willing to listen to like-minded police officers in their communities when it comes to this issue.
So did Quinn manage to irritate more people than he pleased by signing this measure into law during ceremonies held at Marshall High School?
IT COULD BE. I know there were some political people who were holding out hope that Quinn might sign into law some form of a capital projects plan, but would use his “amendatory veto” power to delete the provisions that legitimized video poker.
These probably are the same people who seriously think the Chicago Cubs are going to win a National League pennant in the near future. Some people are just eternal optimists.
So what is likely to happen on Tuesday?
We are at the point in the state’s fiscal year where if the Legislature does not act now to give Quinn something he can immediately (like within 24 hours or so) sign into law, there will start to be the obligatory shutdowns of certain state government agencies and programs.
AFTER ALL, STATE law doesn’t allow state government to operate without a balanced budget. There’s also the fact that some of those shutdowns and cuts might not be restored once a budget eventually is passed into law.
That has some legislators thinking seriously about approving a budget for six months (running through December), with the idea being that the Legislature will return in November and pass a spending plan for the remaining six months (January through June) of fiscal 2010.
But that also is the time when many legislators will have to finalize their own intentions on whether they will seek re-election in the ’10 primary and general elections.
If there are legislators who now are feeling too cowardly to vote for what is the right thing to do (rather than the politically expedient), I can just envision how terrified the Legislature will be come the fall veto session.
THIS SITUATION IS going to be an ugly political mess, regardless of how it turns out. It is for that reason that I’d rather see the Legislature take the tough vote now, rather than stretch this mess out any longer.
Not only are the political people better off, all of us would prefer to know now just how bad things will be in the coming months.
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