Springfield — The Illinois General Assembly adjourned its spring session Sunday and delivered first-term Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s “think big” agenda as the Senate voted to raise motorists’ taxes and fees and embark upon a massive statewide gambling expansion that included a Chicago casino and legalized sports betting to pay for new roads, bridges and public buildings.
The new governor took to the floor of the Senate as the chamber concluded its work, with Democratic Senate President John Cullerton saying that lawmakers and the public would have “all summer to thank and pay tribute to him” as he signs into law various portions of his agenda. That included legalizing recreational marijuana, endorsing a sweeping abortion-rights bill and lawmakers putting a measure on the 2020 ballot asking voters to amend the state constitution to allow for a graduated-rate income tax to replace the mandated flat-rate tax. Lawmakers also reached a bipartisan agreement on a $40 billion state spending plan that legislators in both parties said was balanced.
Despite being forced into overtime this weekend after failing to meet its scheduled May 31 adjournment date, the size and scope of Pritzker’s achievements less than six months into office — often with Republican support — represented the release of a pent-up desire among lawmakers to show accomplishments after four years of governmental dysfunction and gridlock due to the ideological battles between former one-term GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-controlled legislature.
“For the first time in many years, we met our most basic responsibility in this state — a real balanced budget,” Pritzker said Sunday during a Capitol news conference. “Just a few years ago, just passing a budget was considered nearly impossible. But this year, by passing a balanced budget, we’ve demonstrated that a progressive, forward-thinking vision is in perfect harmony with fiscal responsibility.”
Pritzker hailed the legislative session as one of the most “ambitious and consequential” in the state’s history.
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The collegial atmosphere of Senate Democrats and Republicans on Sunday belied the partisan tensions that existed for the previous four years under Rauner. Republicans joined with Democrats for easy passage of a host of motorist-related fees and the gambling expansion to pay for the state’s first major public works program in a decade — a $45 billion multiyear package of transportation and building improvements — with the opportunity for rank-and-file lawmakers to engage in ribbon-cuttings to show their constituents a substantive return for their tax dollars.
“We will finally get around to treating our transportation infrastructure as a vital source of life in our state,” said sponsoring state Sen. Martin Sandoval, D-Chicago.
The public works plan, which won plaudits of traditional Republican-oriented business groups, would be paid for through a variety of sources, including a doubling of the current 19-cent-per-gallon state motor fuel tax, last raised in 1990, and it would be indexed to future increases in inflation.
For transportation-related projects, the measure also would increase the $101 license plate fee to $151 annually, and charge electric vehicles $248 a year rather than the current $35 for two years.
Separately, it would allow Cook County municipalities to levy a 3-cent-per-gallon motor fuel tax.
For building construction projects, it would increase the state’s $1.98-per-pack cigarette tax by $1 and impose a tax of 6% percent daily and 9% monthly on garage and lot parking, among other things. It also would capture state revenues from expanded gambling and sports betting.
Senate Republican leader Bill Brady of Bloomington, who voted for the measure, called the infrastructure program “monumental.”
Despite having only 19 Republicans in the Senate, the parties found common ground on key issues such as infrastructure, Brady said.
“Senate Republicans came to the table,” Brady said. “We didn’t seek to turn it over.”
Brady stood alongside Pritzker at his news conference following the Senate adjournment.
Cullerton attributed the success of Pritzker’s agenda to the Democrats’ legislative supermajorities as well as “getting along” with Republican leaders.
It was the prospect of a large-scale construction program that helped push passage of a massive expansion of gambling in the state after more than a decade of unsuccessful efforts to add casinos to Chicago and elsewhere.
State Sen. Terry Link, a Vernon Hills Democrat who has long been part of the effort to expand casino gambling, noted Sunday was his wedding anniversary. He urged his colleagues to vote yes, “for the sake of my marriage, for the sake of the state of Illinois.”
The gambling bill would allow for a Chicago casino and legal sports betting in Illinois, and slot machines at both city airports. It also would allow smaller casinos in the south suburbs, Waukegan, Rockford, Danville and Williamson County. Slot machines also would be authorized for horse race tracks, and casinos and tracks could host sports betting.
Cullerton noted Sunday that large amounts of Illinoisans cross state lines to go to casinos in Indiana and elsewhere. Sports betting, too, is something “people are doing now, just like they’re smoking marijuana now, so we may as well regulate it and get some money out of it,” Cullerton said.
The Chicago casino would be privately owned, and the city would get one-third of all tax revenue from it. The casino would have up to 4,000 gambling positions — slot machines or seats at a gaming table — while other new and current casinos could increase their gambling positions from 1,200 to 2,000. It also would allow horse tracks to have 1,200 gambling positions.
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For sports betting, licenses would go to all existing and newly authorized casinos as well as horse racetracks and sports venues, with license fees ranging from $3.2 million to $10 million.
Negotiations in the final stretch of the session resulted in a final budget agreement that includes a group of business tax credits pushed by Republicans, which included phasing out the franchise tax paid by corporations and creating a new tax credit for data centers, among other items.
The House adjourned its spring session Saturday without voting to freeze base salaries for lawmakers, so state legislators would receive a roughly $1,600 pay increase if Pritzker signs the budget, which would be the first hike since 2008. The Senate took action late Friday night to block the cost-of-living increases.
“They were aware of it, we passed the bill over to them, but I don’t know what happened over there — they didn’t take it up,” Cullerton said. “I would advise them to do so.”
Chicago Tribune’s Dan Petrella contributed.
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