By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – Local governments counting on gambling revenue from the state could be walking away empty-handed.
The Rauner administration has said Illinois can’t legally send gambling money to cities and towns until there’s a state budget. Bloomington mayor Tari Renner told WIBC’s Scott Laughlin it would be irresponsible for the state to withhold the money, but he’s not surprised.
“If I get fired up about that, I would burst a blood vessel, because I hear rumors out of Springfield every day about some stupid stuff,” Renner said. “This would be totally irresponsible if the state were to go down this path.”
PODCAST: Listen to Scott and Colleen’s interview with Renner on WJBC.
Renner suspected this could be a maneuver from Gov. Bruce Rauner to pressure Democrats to back his budget proposals.
Local governments took in $3.6 million last month alone. During the 2014-15 budget year, Bloomington took in $629,000 in gambling proceeds while Normal made close to $72,000.
Bloomington’s 54 gambling establishments raked in $164 million last year. Renner said as profitable as those machines are, the establishments could easily pay more to help the city out of its budget deficit.
“I think the people making profits off these video poker machines should bear more of the cost burden than the average taxpayer in this city,” Renner said.
Bloomington has appointed a task force that’s looking for ways to plug a multi-million dollar budget deficit.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
