Mike Tryon
For the last week and a half, McHenry County Blog described gambling expansion bills that passed the Illinois General Assembly, plus the bill that would allow four new casinos (Chicago, Rockford, Waukegan-area and Danville), which passed only the State Senate.
Roll calls were published for
- House Bill 996
- House Bill 1140
- House Bill 1570
- House Bill 2520
- Senate Bill 70
- Senate Bill 1738
- Senate Bill 1739 (Senate roll call only)
- Senate Bill 1884
- Senate Bill 2234
- Senate Bill 2371
Pam Althoff
I decided to see who voted for which bill and created a matrix.
Here’s a summary of how State Senators representing parts of McHenry County voted on the ten bills:
- State Senator Pam Althoff – 7 “Yes” votes, 1 “No” vote and two bills on which no vote was cast.
- State Senator Dan Duffy – no “Yes” votes, 6 “No” votes and four bills on which no vote was cast. Duffy was attending his daughter’s high school graduation on May 30th and 31st, when three of those four bills were voted upon.
- State Senator Karen McConnauhay – 7 “Yes” votes, 3 “No” votes.
Karen McConnaughay
Here’s a summary of how State Representatives representing parts of McHenry County voted on the nine bills:
- Stare Rep. Jack Franks – 1 “Yes” vote, 6 “No” votes. Franks didn’t vote twice. On one of those, there is an “E” next to his name meaning “Excused,” but not further explained.
- State Rep. David McSweeney – 3 “Yes” votes, 6 “No” votes.
- State Rep. Tim Schmitz – 4 “Yes” votes, 4 “No”votes and one “Excused” with no further explanation.
- State Rep. Mike Tryon – 8 “Yes” votes, 1 “No” vote.
- State Rep. Barb Wheeler – 3 “Yes” votes, 6 “No” votes.
Do the math in these samples and Tryon is seen to be voting to expand gambling 89% of the time, while Althoff and McConnaughay were on that side 70% of the time.
The casinos raked in $700 M last year. Did they decide the Tax Rate to be 40%? Did they pass those idiotic earmarks for the windfall?
If they did, can you blame ‘lotto winner’ Bluhm at the Rivers Casino, for already screaming for tax and gaming concessions?
To quote Forrest Gump,”Stupid is what stupid does.”
If these gambling bills represented a move toward restoring personal liberty and corresponding levels of responsibility to the people of Illinois, I could see some justification for voting “yes”.
However, the drive to expand gambling in this state is nothing more than a gateway drug, not for the people who pour their savings into the slot machine or the blackjack table, but for those in Springfield who seek any source of revenue they can find without thought of the consequences.
What have they done?
Let me count the ways:
1. We’ve seen a “temporary” 66% increase in state income taxes on the promise that the money would go to righting the ship of state. That ship is listing more than it was when the increase was passed. Now we hear rumblings of making that increase permanent, with a doubling down by making the income tax progressive.
2. The State Board of Education adopted the Federal “Common Core” standards 2 weeks after they were adopted, without parental or legislative input, because they came with the promise of Race to the Top grants and waivers under No Child Left Behind.
3. Medicaid has been expanded on the promise that manna will flow from heaven to pay for it. If Obamacare collapses and fails to be implemented, who’s going to pick up the tab for all the new Medicaid enrollees?
4. Mike Madigan wants to shift the employer share of teacher pensions to the school districts themselves, when doing so without true pension reform would send local property taxes straight to Mars.
Ronald Reagan once said that the nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program. That doesn’t apply at just the Federal level.
When was the last time the various departments of State government had to actually look at the programs they administer to see if they’re doing what they were originally intended to do, if they’ve outlived their mandate, or if the money they’ve been appropriated is going in some other direction?
The time has long passed for the leadership in Springfield to be held accountable for what they’ve done to this state.
Change cannot come too soon.
Thank you for providing this concise list, among the many others you share.
They helps me with my voting decisions.
Gosh, these guys are going to make a Republican out of me yet.
“Duffy was attending his daughter’s high school graduation on May 30th and 31st, when three of those four bills were voted upon” Horse Ca Ca Barrington’s HS graduation was in the evening and lasted only one evening. Typical for Duffy to be gone and make phony excuses.
@Ralph D Senator Duffy’s daughter graduated from Carmel High School not Barrington.
Typical of Ralph D to spout off about something he knows nothing about.