Thursday, September 11, 2008

Ill. House OKs privatizing lottery

AP:
Illinois would raise $10 billion for building roads and schools by privatizing its state-run lottery for half a century under a plan the House approved Wednesday night.
After years of resisting, Speaker Michael Madigan and his House Democrats approved turning the Illinois Lottery over to a private vendor because Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the Legislature have never agreed on another way to pay for a statewide construction program.
The House also voted to restore some of the painful budget cuts Gov. Rod Blagojevich made this summer, which would stop the closure of dozens of state parks and historic sites and save 325 jobs.
Lawmakers would cover the shortfall by taking "surplus" money from funds set aside for special purposes, but they also restored hundreds of millions of dollars of reductions they admitted they have no way to pay for.

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