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More trouble for the lottery/schools plan

Thursday, Jun 1, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

As I told Capitol Fax readers this morning, House Speaker Michael Madigan wants some answers, and his letter (available to subscribers) was anything but supportive.

llinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has joined the list of lawmakers seeking details of Gov. Rod Blagojevichâ€™s idea of selling off the lottery in hopes of raising billions for schools.

In letters sent Wednesday to state representatives, Madigan, a Chicago Democrat who also heads the Illinois Democratic Party, outlines a litany of questions ranging from how Blagojevich arrived at the $10 billion figure for the lottery sale, to what the plan is for schools when the money runs out in a few years.

The governor has refused to release that info so far. He’ll have to now.

Meanwhile, Pat Gauen is the latest columnist to dis the guv’s plan, in a column entitled “Governor’s bold gamble looks like a sucker’s bet.” Ouch.

And the Tribune ran a story yesterday that casts even more doubt on the governor’s contention that he didn’t come up with the idea to get James Meeks out of the governor’s race.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich says politics had nothing to do with his plan to mortgage the lottery for new education money, but his campaign polled voters about the issue and how he would fare for re-election if state Sen. James Meeks joined the race.

Meeks said May 19 he would not challenge Blagojevich for governor after negotiating with the governor on education plans that included a $10 billion sale or lease of the lottery. Meeks agreed with Blagojevich’s plan the day before Meeks was to have begun gathering signatures to get his name on the Nov. 7 ballot. […]

“They seem to think that every decision that people in government make is motivated by some cynical politics. They seem to think that every decision happens for a political purpose,” Blagojevich said of his critics. “Did it ever dawn on [Topinka] or anyone else that raises that question that there are good people in this business who want to make a difference?”

But a source close to the governor’s campaign confirmed Friday that the poll was done for Blagojevich about three weeks ago.

Doesn’t anyone over there understand that these sorts of statements undermine his entire proposal?

Also, I’m hearing that Illinois Church Action on Alcohol & Addiction Problems is having a press conference today. They apparently don’t like the idea and will reportedly claim that the governor has violated his pledge not to expand gaming by coming up with this proposal.

10 Comments

- Disgusted - Thursday, Jun 1, 06 @ 7:11 am:
You would think that being a state senator, Mr. Meeks would know what was going on with this administration and still he chose to believe a bunch of proven liars over his own gut feeling. So much for common sense in governing.

- Truthful James - Thursday, Jun 1, 06 @ 7:35 am:
Just a thought — why is this transaction tax exempt to the State?

- anon - Thursday, Jun 1, 06 @ 7:43 am:
Did anybody really think that Meeks was going to run? He shot his mouth off and got a bunch of tv time for free.

- Cassandra - Thursday, Jun 1, 06 @ 8:45 am:
If Meeks really was serious about running for guv if needed to raise funds for education, he should have held out. Sounds like he didn’t take a competent financial advisor in with him and so bought the fairytale provided by Goldman and the guv. Or maybe he was so anxious to get out of a potential race that he would have said yes to anything they offered.

Of course, you can’t do this kind of thing every
month, so Meeks may have spent a huge amount of
“political capital” that cannot be spent on future advocacy projects. Next time he says he’ll run for something if something doesn’t happen, everybody will laugh at him.

- DOWNSTATE - Thursday, Jun 1, 06 @ 8:48 am:
Madigan is starting to see the house of Blago crumble so I would say that he is going to make sure that the Gov. is hung out to twirl in the wind by hisself and not take the party with him.Just a little insurance policy against any future voter backlash.

- the Patriot - Thursday, Jun 1, 06 @ 9:21 am:
Has anyone done a simple present value analysis of this plan. While we make 650 mil off the lottery now, I would think in 19 years that number would be over 1 bil per. Aren’t we really taking a discount at 10 Bil for cash now.

Second, where can I get petitions to run for governor. If meeks can get 10 bil, I figure I should be worth at least 250k!

- VanillaMan - Thursday, Jun 1, 06 @ 10:04 am:
This entire scenario is horrific. We have a governor who seems to be too lazy to have ever considered a concrete measure to ensure educational funds. What he does instead is throw out stupid proposals like this with no consideration of tomorrow’s needs. Where’s the leadership? If he is so committed to children, why is he so disinterested in where Illinois will be in 20 years?

To call Blagojevich’s bluff a Meeks pay-off is becoming a compliment.

- DOWNSTATE - Thursday, Jun 1, 06 @ 10:16 am:
MEEKS AND BLAGO.The fool game.One fool making a fool out of another fool.Plus all those reporters that have to eat everything the said about Meeks calling Blago’s bluff.

- Little Lotto - Thursday, Jun 1, 06 @ 11:02 am:
Madigan, as chairman of Gamblovich’s campaign, is definitely a “team member”, so it should be no problem for Coach Rod to hand over the “playbook” to him, right?

Somebody should tell Blago’s spokesperson, to carry through her sports reference from yesterday, “when the gameplan isn’t working, you fire the coach.”

- Gregor - Thursday, Jun 1, 06 @ 12:58 pm:
I just found the Goldman Sachs report: it’s a transcript of the J.G. Wentworth TV commercials.
“CASH NOW!!!!”

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