Illinois House Passes Pension Reform
This week the Illinois House of Representatives voted to eliminate cost of living increases for retired public employees that have been one of the contributing factors in the state’s massive pension crisis.
The action takes the Land of Lincoln a step closer to allowing the state to move forward from an issue that has been at the forefront of the mind of Illinois’s governor, Democrat Pat Quinn, and may just pave the way for the state to regulate Internet-based gambling.
Illinois currently holds the distinction of being the state with the biggest pension liability; the system is currently underfunded by about $97 billion. Governor Quinn has said for months that he expects legislators to focus on fixing the pension fiasco before moving on to other issues, including expanded land-based and online gambling, a matter that has been bandied about in the state for some time.
Last Thursday, the Illinois House approved a bill that would immediately cut the state’s pension liability by $20 billion, and would go on to save taxpayers in the state $100 billion more over a thirty year time period.
Said State Representative Elaine Nekritz, Democrat of Northbrook, “This is another sacrifice that we all have to make in the spirit of shared sacrifice in order to right our state’s fiscal ship and get us headed in the right direction. This will not solve the problem, but it will put us on a trajectory where we actually can solve the problem.”
Earlier this year Governor Quinn said that he was unwilling to turn his attention to the issue of casino expansion in the state until lawmakers resolved the pension shortfall. At the beginning of March, the Governor vetoed a casino expansion bill that would have put five new land-based casino properties in the state, including one in Chicago, that was passed back in May of 2011.
Parliamentary maneuvering kept the bill from reaching Governor Quinn’s desk for nearly two years, however the sponsor of the earlier legislation, State Senator Terry Link, Democrat representing Waukegan, quickly introduced a new casino bill. The new legislation also calls for the construction of five casinos, but goes a step further to include online wagering as well.
The new legislation, which has not advanced beyond a Senate committee vote, prohibits casino interests from making political campaign contributions, which previously had been a sticking point for Governor Quinn.
Speaking to the Governor’s concerns, State Senator Link said of the new gambling bill, “We [were] prepared to introduce a new bill that we feel would answer almost 99 percent of what the governor’s requests were.”
It still looks like it will be quite some time before Illinoisans are logging onto real money gambling sites, but clearing up the pension matter should, at the very least, allow legislatures and the Governor to turn some attention to the issue of gambling expansion.
While Governor Quinn has in the past voiced opposition to any sort of gambling expansion in Illinois, in recent months his opinion appears to have softened amid the pension problems and an overall need for increased revenue.
So far, three US states have passed laws allowing for Internet-based gambling. Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware will all soon be rolling out some form of wagering websites, while many other states around the nation are considering doing the same.
