Chicago Sun-Times: Daley touts shelved city casino proposal

SPRINGFIELD -- Weeks after dismissing a possible Chicago casino, Mayor Daley dusted off his 2004 plan for a city-owned gambling venue Monday and said it is "more comprehensive" than the slots-for- schools proposal now pushed by Gov. Blagojevich.

Daley's unexpected emergence came as the governor and top leaders in the General Assembly have turned to gambling as a means to help plug a deficit of at least $1.2 billion as an end-of-month deadline looms to pass a 2006 state budget.

The governor wants to double the number of slot machines and table games at Illinois' existing casinos and channel the approximately $300 million that could be raised into the state's public schools.

On Monday, Daley said his mothballed $1 billion plan for a city- owned, land-based casino in Chicago -- a proposal Blagojevich took all of one day to shoot down last year -- is a more preferable budget fix than what the governor now has on the table.

"I applaud the governor's efforts to generate additional funding for education," Daley said in a statement. "However, the city's own proposal, which calls for a city-owned casino in Chicago, is more comprehensive and would result in more revenue for both the state and the city.

"Our proposal would generate $250 to $300 million a year in new revenue for Chicago and $600 million to $700 million a year for the state. This money would help pay for schools, parks, police and fire stations and other critical needs and would take the pressure off local property taxes," the mayor said.

In early April, Daley shrugged off the possibility of getting a Chicago casino from the Legislature this spring and identified his main priorities as getting more money for the Chicago Transit Authority and the city's schools.

Daley's vaguely worded statement Monday triggered questions at the Statehouse about whether the mayor now intends to marshal opposition among city lawmakers to block any gambling plan that doesn't provide for a Chicago casino.

But Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago), who wants to build upon the governor's plan by adding slot machines at racetracks, cautioned against reading too much into Daley's statement and said he believed the mayor remains neutral on gambling this spring.

"In politics, you never do that," Jones said, when asked if he interpreted Daley's remarks as a signal meant to torpedo the governor's plan.

Spokesmen for Blagojevich did not return more than a half dozen messages over a five-hour span seeking response to the mayor's statement.

Budget talks resume today, four days before the General Assembly's scheduled Friday adjournment. Most at the Statehouse believe that date will pass without a budget deal, leaving May 31 as the real deadline for a 2006 spending plan. If Blagojevich and the legislative leaders don't reach consensus by then, a three-fifths vote will be necessary to pass a budget in overtime, giving Republicans leverage they now don't have in the Democratic-led Legislature.

In other business Monday, the House unanimously approved a push to require that nursing home residents be notified if they're sharing the same roof with a paroled sex offender -- an initiative that follows a Sun-Times investigation that documented 100 instances of registered sex offenders living in Illinois nursing homes. The proposal awaits Senate approval.

'Help 13,000 constituents'

Meanwhile, lobbyists for bankrupt United Airlines tried to marshal support for a plan to cap state sales taxes on the carrier's jet fuel purchases at the $18.3 million level it paid last year.

Rising oil prices have caused United to pay $1 billion more for fuel this year than in 2004. The Elk Grove Township-based airline, which buys much of its fuel in Illinois, predicts it will have to pay $14 million more in state sales taxes on fuel in 2005 than it did in 2002.

"We've asked so much of our employees. Here's one way for the state to help 13,000 of its constituents," United lobbyist Margaret Houlihan said.