Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday he’s all for the idea of a Chicago casino, provided certain “conditions” are met, including municipal ownership long-demanded by former Mayor Richard M. Daley.
“We have gambling, or casinos rather, in Chicago. It happens to be in Hammond, Ind. We’re losing that revenue. We can’t continue to do that,” the new mayor said.
Emanuel’s push comes as the Legislature’s spring term faces an end-of-month adjournment deadline with a laundry list of major items still unresolved, including a budget, new legislative maps, and workers compensation and state pension reforms.
This is a huge opportunity for connected folks to make a pile of money. And where money is concerned, well, let's just say the Machine doesn't share very well.
We need some sort of safeguard or addendum to the casino bill that dictates all revenues go to shore up pension obligations before one red-cent is paid out to connected "investors." In fact, there ought to be some built-in rules that 100% of the profit go toward pension funds until such time as the obligations are met for the current fiscal year. That might encourage the casino to actually run efficiently enough to get the pension obligation out of the way as quickly as possible so they can start seeing returns on the initial investments.
We need some sort of safeguard or addendum to the casino bill that dictates all revenues go to shore up pension obligations before one red-cent is paid out to connected "investors." In fact, there ought to be some built-in rules that 100% of the profit go toward pension funds until such time as the obligations are met for the current fiscal year. That might encourage the casino to actually run efficiently enough to get the pension obligation out of the way as quickly as possible so they can start seeing returns on the initial investments.