Chicago Mayor takes casino push to Illinois Capitol

Mayor Lori Lightfoot met with legislators from both parties Tuesday during her first visit to the Capitol since her proposal to tweak tax rates for a Chicago casino failed to advance last fall. She said she had “very good conversations” and believes she made “progress.”

The mayor last made the pitch for the long-sought revenue source during November’s veto session, but she left empty-handed, though she remains optimistic. “We’re going to do everything we can to make sure that the support that was there is solid and that we get the additional votes that we need to get it over,” Lightfoot said on Tuesday, Chicago Sun Times reports.

The casino issue came up “at every stop” Lightfoot made at the Capitol, and she said the feedback from lawmakers will be incorporated into “planning for how to move this bill forward.” Her visit included meetings with the four legislative leaders, Senate Democrats, both Republican caucuses and Chicago Democrats from both chambers. She met separately with about 20 House Democrats. The trip came a day before Gov. J.B. Pritzker is set to deliver his second-year budget address – although Lightfoot did not meet with the Democratic governor on Tuesday.

Visiting the Illinois House Republican caucus for the first time since she took office, the mayor outlined details of her gaming proposal. The city’s share of gambling revenue from a Chicago casino would be dedicated to its underfunded police and fire pension funds. Chicago would become the largest US city with a casino.

Last year, despite Lightfoot’s visits to the Capitol — some House Democrats said they’d never seen a Chicago mayor in their caucus before — lawmakers only passed a separate, watered-down gambling fix bill that beefed up background checks on applicants for casino and sports wagering licenses.

Ultimately, Lightfoot couldn’t get enough support, and some lawmakers wanted an extra piece of revenue for their districts. There were also accusations of regionalism and questions about why Downstate legislators should help Chicago once again. 

At issue with the Chicago casino is the tax structure for any potential developer in light of a state-commissioned study that deemed the taxes “too onerous” for anyone to turn a profit. And a report released in early February by the state Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability found total revenue from the state’s 10 existing casinos — and the tax dollars they generate — dropped for a seventh straight year in 2019. That has raised even more questions about the viability of a Chicago casino.

While the mayor’s plan also would lower the city’s share of the revenue, it would still receive a much larger cut than the 5% that goes to other casino towns, some of which have to share a portion with neighboring communities. Among the issues that surfaced in the fall were objections from suburban Democrats that included concerns that a Chicago casino on the South Side may detract from a newly authorized south suburban casino, as well as questions around a lack of gambling revenue going directly to communities in DuPage County.

“People have strongly held opinions, and so do I, and we had an exchange about it,” Lightfoot told reporters.

While Lightfoot and Pritzker did not meet on Tuesday, the Democratic governor from Chicago is counting on revenue from a Chicago mega-casino to help fund his $45 billion capital projects plan. Besides introducing six new casinos, sports betting and racetrack casinos, the new gambling expansion measure — part of Pritzker’s capital plan — increased the number of video gaming terminals allowed in each establishment from five to six.

Lightfoot’s meetings this week with both House and Senate Republicans follow some frustration from lawmakers in the fall over what they perceived as a lack of communication from the mayor’s office on the casino, one of her top Springfield asks, as reported by The Chicago Tribune. After Lightfoot met with House Republicans in caucus for roughly an hour Tuesday morning, GOP leader Jim Durkin said there was “good progress” on the casino issue.

While Lightfoot had no luck making her pitch on the casino bill to lawmakers last year, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, said speaking to a caucus “representing the state from top to bottom makes a big difference.” “It was great to have Mayor Lightfoot in front of our caucus today,” Harmon said. “She made a compelling case for why it’s important for the whole state that we clean up the gaming bill.”

Lightfoot’s casino push may get lumped in with a number of other gambling-related issues legislators considering this spring, including a proposed ban on sweepstakes gambling machines and a plan to allow a horse racing track and casino to open at Balmoral Park near Crete.