Gambling to increase the state’s revenues – gambling.  Do state and local Democrats find it that hard to actually trim fat from the budget, that have to resort to gambling?  Using casinos to raise money as opposed to increasing taxes directly is like switching from Twinkies to Ho Hos when trying to lose weight.  From the Beacon News:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s $34 billion statewide construction program stalled again Thursday when the House rejected the gambling expansion that would have provided the major source of money to pay for it.

The 47-55 vote gives some political cover to Blagojevich’s political nemesis, House Speaker Michael Madigan. The Democratic governor has feuded with Madigan and blamed him for holding up the capital program to rebuild roads, fix bridges, update schools and do other infrastructure work.

Now, Madigan can use Thursday’s vote in his defense.

“Under the current conditions that exist in Illinois government — the difficulty in all the parties working together — my view is that the proposal for the expansion of gaming today is a dead issue,” Madigan told reporters after the vote.

The Senate had already approved the measure, but it needed 71 votes in the House and didn’t even come close. Madigan’s House Democrats previously used a parliamentary move to block the gambling measure, effectively doing the same to the construction program.

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