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From the AP.
Suggesting he isn’t married to bringing keno to Illinois, Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Monday sharply challenged state Republican lawmakers to propose something better to fund school upgrades he envisions under his $3.2 billion capital plan.
But the Democrat warned he would not consider Internet sales of lottery tickets, a plan that already has passed the Senate and awaits House action.
“That, to me, is bringing gambling into somebody’s home. I’m not in favor of that,” Blagojevich told reporters during a stop in this St. Louis suburb to rally support for his capital plan.
So, “gambling” by playing lottery in your own home is never to be allowed, but “gambling” by playing keno in taverns is somehow OK?
I’m having trouble keeping up with the logic here. Can anyone help, ‘cuz I’m kinda stumped.
Maybe we should just let people use the Internet to play the lottery at taverns. Would that be better?
UPDATE: From the AP
Facing mounting opposition, Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday said he’ll take keno off the negotiating table if it means state lawmakers will support his road and school construction plan.
The governor sent a letter to House Minority Leader Tom Cross, who planned to announce his opposition to the idea at a Capitol news conference Tuesday. The letter called keno an excuse for lawmakers to oppose the proposal Blagojevich said is a “critical jobs creation bill.'’
Blagojevich said he is willing to forgo the keno idea as long as legislators work to find the money needed for the $3.2 billion construction plan he proposed two weeks ago.
“All it takes is a yes,'’ Blagojevich said. “Now that keno is no longer a viable option and therefore no longer an excuse to oppose our proposal, I urge you to embrace this jobs creation bill and help us pass it.'’
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jan 24, 06 @ 12:16 am
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Could it be that the difference is keno benefits John Wyma and/or Milan Petrovich clients, while internet lottery does not?
Comment by Former MC Tuesday, Jan 24, 06 @ 5:16 am
I think ‘Former MC’ hit the nail on the head. Good point.
Comment by girl friday Tuesday, Jan 24, 06 @ 5:23 am
Basically the Governor does not really believe anything he says in a public forum- Remember - “I won’t balance the budget on the back of state employees” Then he froze their salaries and stole their pensions. How many times does it need to be said. At best this Governor will say what it takes to make headlines at worse he is very willing lier
Comment by ChicagoDog Tuesday, Jan 24, 06 @ 5:54 am
To begin with take a look at what he is saying and reality.All of these construction jobs he is bragging about will never be seen or recivied by the regular man or woman on the street.They are engineer,operator and union hall jobs.Now the Mom and Pop that had to take McJobs do not have a chance at them.They do not have the money or time to go back to college to be an engineer.Operating a bulldozer or any other equitment takes a lot of training which means you have to have more than a Illinois driver license.To get a laborers card you have to buy a high dollar union card and sit in a union hall and sometimes never get called out and the ordinary person has to be on a job not sitting waiting for a job that might never come.Most all of theses jobs are already spoken for by union people.SO I ASK YOU WHERE IS HE GOING WITH THIS AND WHO IS KICKING MONEY HIS WAY TO GET HIM TO PUSH THIS? Second question is.Wouldn’t it be better if we are going to do something that is fiscal stupid to put that money in state services? Our state agencies need a boost right now under staffed and under funded.Prisons,parks,mental health faculities,caseworkers and other state jobs could be filled and the quality of life in Illinois greatly improved.These are hometown jobs that could be filled by local Mom and Pops.
Comment by DOWNSTATE Tuesday, Jan 24, 06 @ 6:59 am
Downstate has a point: Blago describes these construction jobs as if they were permanent gigs: they are not. Those road crews are itinerants that come work on a section and then go somewhere else. Whle they may stay in the state, they don’t stay in one place very long, so the local economic boom from construction is overstated. If you said the improved access leads to new business investment, wich leads to more jobs, that makes some sense, but the number and quality of those jobs - those are figures you can’t be at all accurate about, and they won’t come into being for perhaps years. So don’t try t make it sound like the capital bill will intantly create a bunch of 50K permanent jobs akin to old style auto factory jobs. It ain’t so.
Comment by Dozer Tuesday, Jan 24, 06 @ 7:35 am
Not to mention how many of these jobs will go to out-of-state low bidders who will bring in their own crews. It’s right up there with taking license plate manufacturing from Illinois and sending it to Canada.
Comment by zatoichi Tuesday, Jan 24, 06 @ 9:09 am
republicans have done a poor job of explaining the problems with blago’s programs. hopefully, this will change after the primary. blago is the ultimate “music man”. many of the downstate papers are so desperate for jobs for their areas, they will support the programs hoping it all works out in the end. st. louis post dispatch didn’t carry response from senator watson, but they continue to crucify the republicans in missouri for fiscal irresponsibilty. republicans pushed these programs for years and now are on the outside and unhappy. in many cases democrats benefited from these republican programs, specifically in the southwestern illinois area.
Comment by Ron Tuesday, Jan 24, 06 @ 10:34 am
Someitmes I feel sorry for reporters forced to listen to Blagojevich. Your confusion is job related. You are a logical person listening to an insane person. They never make sense.
From day one after the inauguration, we who expected gubernatorial leadership have been forced to watch what this guy does, follow the money, and not listen or look at him. Pity the fool that bathes and feeds him.
Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Jan 24, 06 @ 10:52 am
Maybe the elocution is a little fuzzy, but the strategy is great. He has allowed us Republicans to walk into our favorite trap. He has offered a means to accomplish a legitimate objective (infrastructure and school construction).
We don’t like his means, so we object to it (for what I consider legitimate reasons), and he says, “Hey, fine. If you don’t like my financing option, you suggest a better one and maybe I can support it.” And there we stand, nothing to suggest as a means to accomplish a legitimate public objective.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. As long as we let ourselves be defined by what we are against rather than what we are for, we face serious problems.
I know many of you don’t currently think very highly of George Ryan, but I found him to be an admirable man to work for. One of his great strengths was his ability to listen and seek middle ground. When some legislator or interest group would come to him in opposition to one of his proposals, he would listen and then say, “OK, what’s your proposal, maybe I can support it.”
The gov calls our bluff, and there we stand. Either we are opposed to school construction, road improvements, etc because of our failure to provide votes for a bond authorization, or we have to offer up the funding proposal, or we have to say “It’s not our problem, it’s the Governor’s responsibility.”
Well, for better or worse, he has, on this issue, met his responsibility. Now we get to see how we define our responsibilty and how we explain our actions (inaction?).
Comment by stephenbs Tuesday, Jan 24, 06 @ 11:17 am
I’m sorry, somehow I posted the previous comment under my ser name , not my real name.
Comment by steve schnorf Tuesday, Jan 24, 06 @ 11:19 am
You think your stumped, Rich? My guess is the governor is even stumped with what he just said. He suddenly made a U-Turn regarding the Keno proposal when he saw the unexpected backlash from the Illinois voters over his ill-thought out comment concerning bringing legalized Keno into Illinois. The next well-thought out statement from the Guv will be the suggestion that the State of Illinois will sell the unoccupied Governor’s Mansion in order to fix the financial hemmoraging the state is undergoing. Put away the tourniquet because Rod has a pocket full of band-aids.
Comment by Beowulf Tuesday, Jan 24, 06 @ 11:53 am
I’m still waiting to hear what the overall mechanism is in the bill to pay off the bonds. Keno was only going towards $500 million of the proposal.
With state services already cut to the bone and the state hugely behind on its Medicaid payments to providers, I don’t see how the guv is going to pay for his pandering.
Comment by Anon Tuesday, Jan 24, 06 @ 1:26 pm