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January 16, 2006

Illinois school building repair plan may be big gamble

Set your TiVo! It's that time of year again. NFL playoffs? Nope. Something much more thrilling: governor state-of-the-state addresses. On tap in Illinois: Gov. Rod Blagojevich will use his address Wednesday to lay out a plan to allow keno wagering at thousands of bars and restaurants to raise needed state funds. The move turns an already fractious legislative discussion about his multibillion-dollar plan to build and repair roads and schools into a debate about more gambling in the state, reports the Chicago Tribune.

The justifying equation for the plan is simple. No tax hikes for anyone, plus no vote required from the state's General Assembly on a funding source, equals political expediency. And $500 million for school buildings. Some opposition comes from within the Democrat governor's own party, from Latino state senators who say adding more legalized gambling would be harmful to their neighborhoods.

The governor calls keno just an extension of the lottery, which is already legal in the state. Doug Finke, a columnist for the Peoria Star-Journal, calls that a semantics game. This is obviously not our fight. Funding schools adequately so that such political games can be avoided certainly is, though. We will be watching. Should schools rely so much on gambling revenue? What do you think?

Posted January 16, 2006 3:37 PM

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Comments(1)

Posted by: JimMc on January 16, 2006 4:46 PM

I could make a smart-alecky comment like "Hey, maybe we can make this a self-sustaining revenue stream by adding keno instruction to school curriculum" (in fact I guess I just did). One could also argue the philosophical merits of funding education thru the addictions of the lower and middle classes. But the fact is we already have a lucrative state lottery in Illinois and as in most states, the "education" portion of that money that actually makes it into schools is fairly inconsequential. The state already underfunds it's schools and lottery money is just one of many components already figured into the state education budget. Lottery money is not a "bonus" but simply a replacement for other revenue sources. Also, when you look at the demographics of where Illinois lottery money comes from, it gets distributed back out very unfairly. I want to know how this keno plan will be any different.