* Cole Lauterbach at the Center Square on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s unsuccessful veto session bid to change the state gaming law to help Chicago land a casino…
But her lobbying efforts hit a roadblock when news broke that a state lawmaker had been arrested for allegedly offering a state senator who had been wearing a federal wiretap a series of bribes in exchange for supporting another piece of gambling legislation.
“It didn’t help that, on the very first day of veto session, there was a criminal charge announced of a legislator around gaming,” Lightfoot told the Economic Club of Chicago. “I felt like at that point we may not even be in the conversation.”
As the veto session came to a close, it became clear that Lightfoot would come up short. She revealed Tuesday just how close it was.
“By our whip count, we had fifty-five votes in the House and we needed sixty so we were close despite those odds,” she said.
One of the difficulties she said her team ran up against was a legislative effort to add what she called “tinsel to the Christmas tree,” or markup the bill with add-ons they wanted.
“They saw this piece of legislation, particularly around casinos, as their one opportunity to get something that they felt they were promised,” she said. “People came out of the woodwork with their ‘letters to Santa.’ ”
The impetus for the change in the already passed gambling legislation was a report that said the tax and fee structure for a Chicago casino was too high to attract a developer.
Lightfoot said she was confident an agreement could be reached when lawmakers return to Springfield in 2020.
Legislators were, indeed, asking for a lot of stuff. Some thought they had an agreement with the mayor and then others jumped in when they saw goodies being passed out.
It’s never easy to pass a gaming bill, particularly a stand-alone bill like this one which the mayor tried to muscle through in a hurry.
…Adding… Some good points here…
Yep.
- Annonin - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 10:10 am:
Christmas like the size at the Daley Center. Not unexpected when one entity wants to change details that really took 20 years to do. Especially when downstate towns were preceding under the terms created in the law. It will be interesting to see how this will take to sort out.
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 10:21 am:
Love the spin that the Mayor of Chicago failed.
The failure to pass a gaming bill that would allow a private operator to open a Chicago Casino rest firmly on the Governor, Speaker of the House and chairman of the Democratic Party and the Senate President all of whom live in Chicago.
They were blindsided that no private investor would take a pass on a Casino with a 72% tax rate.
But the citizens of Illinois are supposed to trust them to set the rates on a graduated income tax.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 10:28 am:
Welcome to politics Mayor Lightfoot.
Simple game; 60, 30, signature. Sometimes it’s 71, 36, signature, but if you can’t get 60, getting 71 is even tougher.
Amateurs blame the game, those willing to understand their own failures realize… “I didn’t have the numbers, it’s on me”.
The more Lightfoot talks, the worse she seems to look to the governing.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 11:00 am:
=== They were blindsided that no private investor would take a pass on a Casino with a 72% tax rate.===
I must’ve missed the auction and no bidders.
Have a link for that?
- Ok - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 11:13 am:
The tree is not at the Daley Center anymore Annonin.
- Been There - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 11:23 am:
===“People came out of the woodwork with their ‘letters to Santa.’ ” ===
This has always been Chicago’s problem in Springfield. Not just with gaming. Chicago wants their letter to Santa to be the first one to be read and only one to be read. Doesn’t work that way. As noted already she needs 60 and 30 and the last time I looked we didn’t have that many votes representing just Chicago.
- Bud's Bar Stool - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 11:54 am:
=== Chicago wants their letter to Santa to be the first one to be read and only one to be read. ===
Exactly. What was Lightfoot’s gaming request if not a big, fat letter to Santa. Her comment betrays both a lack of self-awareness and ignorance of the process – when the legislature is in session, stakeholders of all kinds make requests, and that’s especially true when it comes to gaming.
And, as noted elsewhere, she is deflecting from her administration’s own failure to effectively engage the legislature (over-looking Republicans, etc.).
- Thomas Paine - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 11:59 am:
Kyle Hillman and Oswego Willy nailed it.
A couple other thoughts for the coffin lid:
- everything is easier when you haven’t spent six months driving the governor’s office nuts;
- everything is easier when you haven’t blindsided even friendly aldermen with bizarre site proposals;
- if you want lawmakers to “be your friend,”1 and you don’t want them to expect handouts in return, stop handing out stuff to your friends.
- Cheap Trick - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 12:00 pm:
Maybe my friend Dave could help her. He’s very known in the casino business
- @misterjayem - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 12:12 pm:
It would be easier to believe that Lightfoot’s big failures in Springfield are someone else’s fault if her team could point to a few of their big successes in Springfield.
It’s way past time for her team to get serious about working with the state government.
– MrJM
- lincoln's beard - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 12:38 pm:
It speaks volumes about Illinois politics that mostly everyone agrees that the gaming bill fix was both a good idea and necessary. Where people disagree is whether someone’s failure to lard up a good idea with the sweeteners necessary to get enough votes *from your own party* to pass it is an indictment of the proponent or those asking to have their logs rolled.
- Candle in the wind - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 1:04 pm:
===lead you to exactly zero wins, and they’ve botched a handful of otherwise favorable positions to come home with zero. It’s sad to watch.===
By my calculation, she has been in office for exactly 16 legislative days (10 to end 2019 session and 6 veto days). Please, elaborate on all the favorable positions and possible wins.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 1:10 pm:
=== By my calculation, she has been in office for exactly 16 legislative days (10 to end 2019 session and 6 veto days). Please, elaborate on all the favorable positions and possible wins.===
LOL…
Lemme guess, “she’s too new to fail”.
Not too new to accept wins if she had them.
They play the game, arguably, as awful as I can remember any Crew, top to bottom, in Illinois politics, and that is saying something.
The amateurs either not helping Lightfoot, or are so awful they are hurting Lightfoot, even more than Lightfoot hurts herself… they make the BTIA(tm) Raunerites and Bruce Rauner seem… capable.
I can’t wait for the ads Lightfoot will run that end…
“I choose to fight”
They’ve learned nothing with Raunerite tactics.
But, it’s only 16 days, lol
- Telly - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 1:13 pm:
A lot of the criticism here of Lightfoot is legit. But the mayor’s point about the Arroyo indictment derailing everything is probably correct, too. As long as Terry Link remained the senate sponsor of the gaming bill (and Cullerton made it pretty clear he wasn’t coming off it,) Lightfoot’s inability to get 60/30 didn’t matter much. A Link-sponsored gaming bill wasn’t gonna get called.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 1:15 pm:
- Telly -
So Lightfoot is a “passive failure“ and amateur?
Blaming the game puts her there.
- Thomas Paine - Tuesday, Dec 17, 19 @ 10:45 pm:
Lightfoot hit the ground in Springfield on April 10.
This from Tins Sfondeles would make a great poster, Rich:
‘Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot spent her Wednesday in the state capital on her own timetable — early to meetings with Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker and with lawmakers on the Illinois House floor.
Noting that “obviously Springfield looms large,” Lightfoot declined to spell out what help she might seek from the Legislature, but vowed to have “boots on the ground” in the statehouse to advance her plans.
“I’m not going to wait until May 20th to be active and engaged in the General Assembly,” Lightfoot said. “We’ve already started that process.”
She predicted she would have good working relationships with the governor — “a very, very good, open guy, very no-nonsense” — and House Speaker Mike Madigan, a “very important person to the city of Chicago.”‘