Illinois Department of Revenue Director David Harris was one of the small group of Republican legislators who defied former Gov. Bruce Rauner in the summer of 2017 when he not only voted for a tax hike to end a two-year budget impasse, but also voted to overturn the Republican governor’s veto on the increase in income taxes. While he and many others announced their immediate retirements after that vote or their decisions to not seek re-election, Gov. JB Pritzker announced Harris would serve as the director IDOR soon after his November win over Rauner. The Daily Line spoke with Harris on Tuesday two days after the legislature wrapped up its business for the spring session, which resulted in the legalization of recreational marijuana, a $40.1 billion budget, a $44.5 billion six-year capital plan and a host of new taxes and fees in exchange for the creation of a bevy of new tax incentives for businesses.

 A man plays a video slot machine in a lounge at Huck’s, a truck stop in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Under Illinois’ new gambling expansion, bars, restaurants, fraternal organizations and gambling parlors will be allowed to have six machines, up from five. Trucks stops will be permitted to hold 10 machines. (Whitney Curtis, special to ProPublica Illinois)

An 816-page bill introduced and passed by the General Assembly over the weekend will, if fully realized, transform Illinois into the gambling capital of the Midwest.

The legislation legalizes sports gambling; sanctions six new casinos, including one in Chicago; increases the number of video gambling machines as well as the maximum bet; and transforms the state’s horse racing tracks into “racinos” by permitting casino operations at the state’s three existing tracks while allowing two more to open.

Shortly after the Senate adjourned for the spring early Sunday evening, aides decked out Gov. JB Pritzker’s office with giant multi-colored signs touting their accomplishments: legalizing marijuana, putting the question of a graduated income tax on the November 2020 ballot, a $15 minimum wage and passing the Reproductive Health Act.

But when Pritzker and other Democratic senators filed into the room to talk to reporters, he was accompanied by GOP senators as well as including Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady (R-Bloomington).

After an hours-long break in legislative floor action Friday afternoon and evening, the Illinois House passed an operating budget worth $40.1 billion — nearly $1.5 billion larger than the budget Gov. JB Pritzker proposed in February.

Ahead of a Friday vote on a bill that would require firms to pay their workers the equivalent of the local prevailing wage paid to union laborers, the business community balked at new language filed in a trailer bill that would exempt operators with a project labor agreement with a local union.

Rocky Wirtz, left, and Neil Bluhm. [Submitted]

Ten years ago, Illinois was poised to pass a $31 billion capital plan funded in part by a projected $162 million annually in taxes on candy, sweetened beverages, hygiene products, beer, wine and liquor and a projected $300 million in annual tax revenue from video gaming terminals once the industry was fully up and running.

Lawmakers voted on the most contentious part of the funding sources, including those alcohol taxes, on June 30, 2009 during a special session after the regular spring legislative session had adjourned in May.

The taxes were set to go into effect on Sept. 1 of that year, but in the week leading up to the effective date, Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz, the head of the company now known as Breakthru Beverage Illinois, filed suit against the state in Cook County Court.

After weeks of fighting between billionaire Rivers Casino owner Neil Bluhm and the CEOs of the fantasy sports and sports betting tech companies FanDuel and DraftKings that threatened one of Gov. JB Pritzker’s top priorities, negotiators say an omnibus gaming bill will be heard in committee Thursday morning — a bill that includes a deal favorable for Bluhm.

Republicans on Tuesday said they will likely provide “a handful” of votes to legalize marijuana now that a new amendment to SB 7 establishes a different path to expunge the records of those convicted of cannabis-related offenses — the governor’s pardon power.

A week ago Republican leaders told The Daily Line  no member of their caucus would vote for to the long-running effort to legalize marijuana.

Despite weeks of negotiations, business groups still oppose Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s data modernization bill, SB 1379, amid concerns that it would eventually force commercial, industrial and manufacturing property owners to shoulder the lion’s share of the property tax burden.

 People with the Bet on Main Street Coalition rallied at the Illinois State Capitol on May 8, in Springfield, Illinois. The group opposes a tax increase on video gambling. Organizers claimed attendees were small bar and restaurant owners, but records and interviews show that employees of the state’s largest video gambling companies were among the crowd. (Whitney Curtis, special to ProPublica Illinois)

This story is a collaboration between ProPublica Illinois and WBEZ Chicago, co-published with the Chicago Sun-Times and The Daily Line. ProPublica Illinois is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. Sign up for our newsletter to get weekly updates written by our journalists.

With the Illinois General Assembly poised to consider a tax hike on video gambling, some key lawmakers and their family members have developed previously undisclosed financial connections to the industry, meaning the fate of any proposal could lie in part on votes of legislators with a stake in the outcome.