*** UPDATE 1 *** The operating budget bill has surfaced. Click here.

The operating budget will begin in the House and the capital budget will start in the Senate.

*** UPDATE 2 *** The gaming/sports betting bill has been filed. Click here to read it. Click here to read a summary. It’ll be heard today at 1:30 in House Exec.

*** UPDATE 3 *** The horizontal capital bill is here.

*** UPDATE 4 *** From the Journey to the Center of the Square outfit…

A source with knowledge of the spending plan in SB262 said it increases funding for K-12 education to $375 million, which is $25 million more than is required by the evidence-based funding formula lawmakers implemented several years ago.

Early childhood education will get a $50 million increase, the source said. For higher education, including community colleges, there are increases ranging from 3 to 9 percent above the current fiscal year.

The spending plan includes a 9 percent increase for the Department on Aging, a 10 percent increase for the Department of Children and Family Services, a 10 percent increase for public health programs that focus on breast cancer screening, vaccines and immunizations, lead screening and safety net hospitals.

The Illinois Department of Corrections would get 7.4 percent more to help comply with various consent decrees.

The Illinois Department of Transportation would get a 20 percent increase from the current fiscal year to increase its headcount and administer capital projects.

*** UPDATE 5 *** The vertical capital bill is here.

[ *** End Of Updates *** ]

* Mark Brown…

Chicago would get a new mega-casino with the proceeds earmarked to pay for police and fire pensions under a mammoth gambling expansion deal in the final stages of negotiation, a key legislator said Thursday.

State Sen. Terry Link, D-Vernon Hills, the Senate sponsor of the bill, said the Chicago casino would allow for 4,000 gaming positions, making it more than three times larger than any casino currently operating in Illinois.

Link said it would be part of a broader deal creating six new casinos across the state and bringing slot machines to three horse racing tracks, essentially turning them into casinos as well.

In addition, the nearly 7,000 businesses that offer video gambling would be allowed to add one machine per establishment — in itself the equivalent of almost six more casinos.

The Chicago casino would not be city-owned, the oft-stated preference of previous mayors, but the city would get a better deal than other municipalities that host casinos, receiving 33 percent of the adjusted gross receipts, Link said. Other communities only get 5 percent.

* From that Journey to the Center of the Square site…

Big items left unresolved late Thursday included how to pay for a proposed $41 billion, six-year infrastructure plan. State Sen. Martin Sandoval, D-Chicago, said he wasn’t ready to reveal details about how it would be funded. However, he said that motorists can expect to see the state’s gas tax double.

“There’s full agreement the 19 cent gas tax indexed is part of the revenue stream that is needed,” Sandoval said. […]

State Sen. Jim Oberweis, R-Sugar Grove, said he was told a proposed $1 surcharge on ride-sharing services was nixed. Oberweis also said one plan to fund the state budget may have been dropped.

“No bag tax at this point, so a few of these things are supposed, but you know the problem is by [Friday] these things could change,” Oberweis said.

I kid that company and its constantly changing name, but they do have some good reporters and they put out a lot of content.

* WTTW…

Key budget negotiators say the fiscal year 2020 spending plan, which will take effect July 1, is not banking on the passage of gambling; revenues would instead be key to a large capital program.

Nor, they say, does the budget depend on Illinois legalizing marijuana, though that is close to passage: Late Thursday night a House committee advanced a broad package that would allow Illinois residents ages 21 and older to purchase and possess up to 30 grams of marijuana come January.

* The working group meetings that have been tackling these issues have become secret committee hearings and it’s getting to be a bit much…

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is counting on a host of new revenue streams to fund the budget he proposed to the General Assembly. Those include higher taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products, higher taxes on video gambling machines, a new plastic shopping bag tax, and a new assessment on managed care organizations that manage the state’s Medicaid program.

But as lawmakers head into the final scheduled day of the 2019 spring session today, none of those bills has been passed. In fact, no one outside the General Assembly has even seen a final draft of them.

Nor, in fact, have they seen a final version of a budget bill, the multi-year capital improvements plan or a gaming bill that would include the legalized sports betting that Pritzker has proposed.

“Stay tuned tomorrow,” Rep. Mike Zalewski, D-Riverside, chairman of the House Revenue and Finance Committee, said in an interview late Thursday evening.

Private negotiations are essential to legislating. The working groups go way beyond that, however.