Springfield News
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MAY 28, 2019
UNLOCKED
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. -
With five days left to go until spring legislative session’s scheduled adjournment Friday, lawmakers are working behind the scenes to find a creative way to save the state money on a capital plan to win the votes of suburban members whose districts intersect Interstate 80.
The biggest beer drinker in any Springfield, Homer Simpson, to lobbied against new taxes on beer. [Mark Denzler/Illinois Manufacturers' Association]
State Reps. Larry Walsh (D-Elwood) and Margo McDermed (R-Mokena) are taking up the mantle for “managed lanes,” a type of tolling in which drivers would pay an extra fee in order to use a dedicated lane, thus getting drivers to their destinations faster at a cost.
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After weeks of delays and false starts, State Sen. Mike Hastings (D-Orland Park) on Thursday shepherded SB 1407 through the Senate, sending the House a bill that would require firms to pay their workers the equivalent of the local prevailing wage paid to union laborers.
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There are plenty of cities around Illinois that have long jockeyed for a casino after the first nine were built in the early 1990s, and the 10th was established in Des Plaines a decade ago. But perhaps no city’s struggle for a casino is more representative of the years of pent-up angst at play during the final weeks of spring legislative session than Rockford.
Rockford native son Rick Nielsen, guitarist for Cheap Trick, lobby for a casino in his hometown. [Facebook/ State Sen. Steve Stadelman]
The city drafted Rockford’s very own Rick Nielsen, guitarist for Cheap Trick, to spend a day in Springfield lobbying for a Rockford casino in between selfies with fans. It’s also got a robust lobbying effort hammering home the message that the time for a casino is now — especially with a threat from across the Illinois border.
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Fantasy sports companies FanDuel and DraftKings may sue the state of Illinois if lawmakers pass and Gov. JB Pritzker signs a version of a sports betting bill bans the firms now focused on sports betting from operating in the state under a provision pushed by Rivers Casino chairman Neil Bluhm.
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Republicans said Tuesday that it’s unlikely any member of the GOP will even consider voting to legalize marijuana, so long as its includes the Black Caucus’ priorities — including a robust expungement program — that they aren’t prepared to support.
Gov. JB Pritzker said he welcomed feedback on his proposal to legalize marijuana. [Twitter/@GovPrtizker]
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Gov. JB Pritzker’s office was the catalyst behind labor group AFL-CIO Illinois putting together a coalition to push for “vertical projects” — that is schools, public buildings and hospitals — to be included in a final capital bill, sources said.
Three sources confirmed to The Daily Line this week that Pritzker’s office set in motion the formation of Build Up Illinois, a coalition of 45 universities, health, housing and education associations and unions from around the state with vested interests in a “vertical” component to the first capital bill in a decade.
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Seven weeks after victims rights activist Denise Rotheimer and freshman State Rep. Anne Stava-Murray (D-Naperville) complained that their “victims’ bill of rights” had been blocked by House Democratic leadership, the pair said Wednesday that it will part of a larger ethics package.
Victims rights activist Denise Rotheimer, left, and freshman State Rep. Anne Stava-Murray (D-Naperville) tell reporters in March that their victims rights bill was being blocked by Democratic leaders. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line]
