Lang: Mood is ‘angry’ during fall veto session

State Representative Lou Lang (D-Skokie). (Photo Courtesy of ilga.gov)

State Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, on Tuesday said saving and creating jobs are the primary reasons Illinois should expand gambling, and that Gov. Pat Quinn’s casino framework will never pass.

Lang joined WJBC’s Jim Fitzpatrick to discuss the fall veto session, which reconvenes Nov. 8. He said recent budget-cutting decisions that negatively impacted social service agencies and other groups have left their mark on the mood in Springfield.

“I would say the mood is angry,” Lang said. “The mood is not necessarily angry legislator to legislator or even party to party. But right now people are angry about the results of not enough revenue to properly run the state of Illinois.”

On the gambling expansion, Quinn’s more restrictive framework would allow five casinos, including one in Chicago, but not the slots at race tracks. Lawmakers put much of that framework into a bill but didn’t call it for a vote last week at the start of the fall session. They say a bill can’t pass without slots at tracks. Quinn dismissed that effort as a “charade.”

Lang, a proponent of gambling expansion, said the original expansion bill — with slots at tracks — was primarily about jobs. Illinois’ 40,000 horse-racing industry jobs are at risk, he said.

“Every day, these jobs are leaking slowly out of Illinois,” Lang said. “I don’t why we would export a great business like horse racing to other states.”

“Gambling is just a tool,” he added. “We’ve got to put people to work every possible way we can.”

Meanwhile, Lang said Quinn’s decision to cut funding for regional school superintendents was a mistake. He also criticized the governor’s preference for local funding for those positions, arguing local governments are already cash-strapped and that an “unevenness” would emerge.

“So we’ll have the dollars restored for some but not others, and that’s really an untenable solution,” Lang said. “It was a mistake that hurt a lot of people.”

Listen to the complete interview below:

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Jim Fitzpatrick can be reached at jim@wjbc.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.