Expect a hiring boom from the state’s marijuana producers by the end of the year—and a likely boost in union membership.
The law that legalizes recreational marijuana use, which the General Assembly approved Friday, has two distinct features: a quick timeline and clear language that encourages union jobs. Existing players in the state’s medical-cannabis market plan to move into the bigger recreational business, resulting in a hiring surge that will dwarf the industry’s initial wave. […]
Cresco Labs will double its Illinois headcount from about 300 today, Bachtell said.
“To supply the adult use-market will require significant investment,” said Dina Rollman, GTI’s senior vice president for government and regulatory affairs, though she declined to quantify it. “There will be massive increases in headcount at production facilities and dispensaries. We’ll increase hiring at the facility level and corporate offices.” […]
Cresco and MedMen say they expect their employees eventually will be unionized. (MedMen, which is based in Los Angeles, already has workers in California and New York represented by the United Food & Commercial Workers union.)
The Illinois cannabis legislation contains multiple references to labor-peace agreements, which will be part of the selection criteria for applicants for new licenses for distribution centers. The intent of the legislation was clear: “to have good, well-paying union jobs in this industry,” Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch, a Democrat from Westchester, testified just before the vote May 31 in the Illinois House.
Yes, yes, yes. Your favorite horse track will likely have a sportsbook and basically a casino. They just don’t fall under the “sports venues” category.
The bill allows: -Casinos in Chicago, Waukegan, south suburbs, Rockford, Danville and Williamson County (So-IL) -Allows slots at O'Hare and Midway airports -Slots @ horse tracks -New horse track in Palatine -Video gaming facilities can add machines, gamblers can bet more on 'em https://t.co/EaRZFC1yTS
Gaming bill language has been filed. Chicago, Waukegan, Rockford, Danville would all get a license each to operate a casino. One license for one township in Cook County (Bloom, Bremen, Calumet, Rich, Thornton, or Worth Township), and one license for Williamson County.
The southern Illinois casino is going to Walker’s Bluff.
…Adding…The bill also authorizes up to 50 video gaming terminals during the Illinois State Fair in Springfield and up to 30 during the DuQuoin State Fair. Beer tents can have up to 10 terminals each.
The massive gambling bill that included a major casino in Chicago and smaller ones in the south suburbs and Waukegan also would open up slots for Chicago’s airports and the state’s horse racetracks, and legalize sports betting. It awaits Senate approval.
The Chicago casino would be privately owned, and the city would get one-third of all tax revenue from it. The casino would have up to 4,000 gambling positions — slot machines or seats at a gaming table — while other new and current casinos could increase their gambling positions from 1,200 to 2,000. It also would allow horse tracks to have 1,200 gambling positions.
For sports betting, licenses would go to all existing and newly authorized casinos as well as horse racetracks and sports venues with license fees ranging from $3.2 million to $10 million.
For the first year and a half, bettors would have to create an account at a licensed gambling facility and then could make deposits online afterward. After 18 months, three online licenses would be created at $20 million per license. Fantasy sports wagering firms could partner as an online vendor at casinos, racetracks or sports venues.
A lottery sports wagering program also would be created.
Sports leagues would not get any of the cut, and wagering on Illinois college teams would be prohibited by the legislation.
The bill, which the governor is expected to sign into law, grants retail casinos an 18-month head start on the mobile market. The casinos will be able to begin accepting bets almost immediately whereas all other entrants—such as DraftKings and FanDuel—will have to wait until late 2020 or early 2021 to begin operations. Eilers & Krejcik Gaming estimated that DraftKings and FanDuel accounted for 79 percent of New Jersey’s mobile betting market in April. Illinois will limit online-only sports books to three licenses, each to be sold for $20 million. Mobile betting is widely projected to capture at least three-quarters of the betting market.
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins criticized the bill on Twitter, writing, “While it is good to see sports betting bills passed, excluding DraftKings and FanDuel is like passing a ride sharing bill that excludes Uber and Lyft. Very disappointing that Illinois customers will not have the best options available to them for 18 months.”
While the leagues will not receive any kind of royalty or integrity fee, they will receive direct revenue from a provision requiring official league data for all in-play and prop bets. Illinois is now the second state to mandate this, following Tennessee’s new law in May.
Large sports venues such as the Bears’ Solider Field and the Cubs’ Wrigley Field would be able to apply for licenses to install betting kiosks on site. The only other current U.S. legislation to enable installations at stadiums, arenas, and ballparks is the one passed by the District of Columbia, though its regulations have not yet been finalized. Capitals, Wizards, and Mystics owner Ted Leonsis has championed legalized sports betting and plans to install a sportsbook at his Capital One Arena. Currently, the only sports venues where a fan can legally bet are the ones with mobile sports betting, such as in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
SB 690 enables the Illinois Gaming Board to issue six different types of licences to operators seeking to offer sports betting in the state: a master sports wagering licence, occupational licence, supplier licence, management services provider licence, tier two official league data provider licence, and central system provider licence.
Each license will be applicable to a certain service or offering in the state, with the fee for a master licence to be set at 5% of the holder’s total handle from the following calendar year, up to a maximum of $10m
Additionally, the legislation permits a new harness track to be built in one of seven townships located within Cook County, which includes Chicago and both Chicago-area tracks. The new venue couldn’t be situated within 35 miles of either existing racing facility without the track granting permission. Harness tracks Maywood and Balmoral both ceased operations in recent years. Only a truncated harness meeting remains at Hawthorne. […]
The new legislation will fortify horse racing in the state because it specifies minimum racing dates for tracks that take on a casino license. If one casino license is issued to a Chicago track, that track must run 110 days the year it’s awarded, 115 the next, and 120 per year afterwards. If two casino licenses are issued to Chicago tracks those numbers rise to 139, 160, and 174. Fairmount would be required to run at least 700 races per year if it receives a gaming license. The legislation also boosts purses for Illinois-bred horses and monetary awards paid to the state’s breeders.
Within the capital measure to fund vertical projects, which include buildings, such as schools and recreational facilities, $150 million would come from an increase in video gaming terminal taxes; $10 million from sports wagering revenue; $500 million from upfront license fees from casino and sports betting; $30 million from a tax on parking garages and lots; $68 million from an increase on the real estate transfer tax on commercial properties; $45 million from removing the sales tax exemption on traded-in property valued above $10,000; and $156 million from an increase on the cigarette tax by $1 per pack.
State Senator Terry Link, a Democrat from Vernon Hills, has pushed for years to expand casino gambling. He finally got his wish Sunday, on his wedding anniversary.
“For the sake of my marriage, for the sake of the state of Illinois, vote this out with your green lights,” Link said.
The bill passed the Senate 46-10-2. Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady voted “Present”…
State Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington has financial ties to the company that operates half the video gambling terminals in Bloomington-Normal.
State records show Ellsworth-based Midwest Electronics Gaming has brought in $18 million from video gambling terminals in Bloomington-Normal over the last two years. That’s the firm ProPublica reported has financial ties to Brady, the Senate minority leader.
State and municipal records show Midwest Gaming licenses 174 terminals at 39 establishments in the Twin Cities. That’s about half.
When the gambling expansion bill was approved by the Illinois Senate last week, state Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, was a “present” vote. […]
“In this case, I have an equity interest in a hotel in Danville, Illinois. And, when Danville was thrown into the bill, my ethics officer advised me that I should declare a conflict by voting present,” Brady said.
The Senate Sunday passed the infrastructure bill to double the state’s gas tax and increase vehicle registration fees the day after the House rushed the bill through in overtime. […]
State Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, who voted against it, said the GOP votes provided cover to the Democrats in districts Republicans should be winning.
“And I just don’t really see anything substantial on the table there to put 20 votes on the table for a gas tax increase,” Wilhour said.
Nothing substantial, eh?
Rep. Wilhour’s Beecher City is in Effingham County, which is in IDOT District 7. District 7 received about $600 million in road and bridge projects in the capital bill. If you click here you can see the district’s projects. The district received about the same as District 2 (Rock Island, DeKalb, Kankakee).
District 8 (Metro East to Marion) received a couple of hundred million more than Wilhour’s District 7 (and Wilhour’s House district reaches into that IDOT district), and District 4 (Peoria) did slightly better than 7.
So, Wilhour’s sparsely populated IDOT district was basically tied for fourth out of 9, with District 1 receiving the most at $3.1 billion. But that’s Chicago and the suburbs, which has 65 percent of the state’s population.
All in all, I think he did pretty well. His region gets a bunch of state money and he didn’t vote to pay for it.
Illinois lawmakers are in line for a pay raise after a paperwork mix-up that went uncorrected.
The House adjourned its spring session Saturday without taking action on a measure that would have frozen base legislative salaries at $67,836. That means that lawmakers would receive an estimated $1,600 annual pay increase if Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs the budget.
It would be the first pay raise for legislators since 2008. But Senate Democrats conceded during debate on the budget Friday night that an agreed-to freeze on a cost-of-living increase was not in legislation authorizing the spending plan. So they amended another bill to prohibit the COLA and sent it to the House.
The House took no action. Democratic House Majority Leader Greg Harris of Chicago noted there were no questions about the COLA during debate on the budget.
Steve Brown is spokesman for Chicago Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan. He says he’s not aware of a COLA but said there’s an increase for lawmakers’ office expenses.
The original House sponsor was Rep. Stephanie Kifowit (D-Oswego), but on Saturday Rep. Thaddeus Jones (D-Calumet City) became the chief sponsor and quickly filed a motion to non-concur with the Senate amendment. The motion was never called for a vote.
The COLA issue arose Friday night as the Senate debated budget-implementation language. The sponsor, Chicago Democratic Sen. Heather Steans, was surprised to learn that an agreed-to freeze on COLAs was absent from the legislation. [Senate] Democrats remedied the omission by adding the prohibition to another bill they sent to the House, but the House took no action.
“You should go and ask the House why they didn’t pass the bill that we sent them,” Steans said. “Most folks get annual cost-of-living increases in their jobs, or are evaluated for them. It’s not an outrageous expectation that more than once in a 10-year period we’d get them.”
Steve Brown, spokesman for Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, said he was unaware of a pay increase. He said the budget included an increase in reimbursement for legislators’ district office expenses. […]
“Illinois citizens are sick and tired of secret insider budget deals that enrich Springfield politicians at the expense of hardworking taxpayers who are getting hit with massive tax increases,” said [Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills], who voted “no” on the budget.
The salary freeze plan that the Senate sent to the House required only a vote to concur. Rep. Thaddeus Jones, a Calumet City Democrat, filed a motion to non-concur in the freeze. Calling the motion for a vote would have forced House members to vote in favor or against rejecting the freeze.
I don’t necessarily begrudge them the pay hikes. It’s been eleven years since the last one and they’ve done a whole lot this year, unlike past years. But I’m thinking there was no “paperwork mix-up.”
…Adding… The entire House GOP caucus plus Democratic Rep. Carol Ammons signed on to a bill introduced in February (HB2965) to prevent the pay raise.
But, have no fear. Click here to see BlueRoomStream’s live Facebook streaming. If you’re a BRS subscriber and haven’t yet joined their private Facebook group, you’ll need to join.
*** UPDATE *** Tony at BlueRoomStream tells me you can still use your LiveStream smartphone app to watch their broadcasts.
*** UPDATE: Cleared Senate Sunday on final passage ***
* Budget/Capital/Gaming *
SB 689 — FY20 operating revenue with Leader Durkin’s pro-business requests. [Passed the House 107-9, passed the Senate 49-8-1]
SB690 — Revenue (gaming, cigarette tax hike, etc.) for vertical construction [Passed the House 87-27, passed the Senate 46-10-2 (Leader Brady voted “Present”)]
SB1814 — Budget Implementation Act (BIMP) [Passed the House 97-17-1, passed the Senate 52-6]
SB1939 — Capital taxes/fees, including doubling the Motor Fuel Tax. [Passed the House 83-29-1, passed the Senate 48-9-1]
SB 689 (HA3) — FY20 operating revenue with Leader Durkin’s pro-business requests. [Passed the House 107-9, passed the Senate 49-8]
* Substantive legislation *
SB2023 — Expand medical cannabis program. [Passed the House 98-3-1, passed the Senate 52-2.]
SB75 — Comprehensive anti-sexual harassment proposal [Passed the House 114-0, passed the Senate 59-0]
