DANVILLE – Rep. Bill Black says he is not going to extend his term in the Illinois House to help win support for a riverboat casino for Danville.
But that doesn't mean, he said Thursday, that he won't ask his colleagues to support what advocates say is an economic development opportunity for Vermilion County.
The Danville Republican said he still intends to resign from the
"I had thought about it but no, I will not (stay on)," he said. "My wife has put up with a lot and I'm going to honor those commitments."
But he said he hopes to send each of his colleagues – who honored him Wednesday with a 2 1/2-hour tribute on the House floor – a letter urging them to vote for a major gambling expansion bill that calls for five new casinos, including one in Danville. Black said he is checking with an ethics officer to ensure that he can do so.
"I'm not a lobbyist. I don't have any financial interests in the boat or the property. I've never been a huge recipient of gambling money in my campaigns," Black said. "But if it's OK ethically, I do intend to write them a letter on my own personal letterhead, not state letterhead, and just give them a little bit of the history about this.
"If you don't ask them, then you don't get their vote. I think it's an opportunity for a downcast community that has certainly had its share of reversals in the Rust Belt, and we would be grateful if they would support it."
Black said he thinks the gambling-expansion bill, which cleared the Senate on Wednesday, has a "50-50 chance" in the House. He said Senate sponsor, Terry Link, D-Waukegan, "did a pretty good job" of building legislative support for the bill by setting aside casinos for Chicago, the south suburbs, Rockford, Waukegan and Danville.
Black said he didn't fear seeing Danville removed from the bill as it undergoes likely changes in the House.
"If you take Danville out, then the few downstaters who might reluctantly vote for it won't be there," he said.
The Vermilion County economy needs the boost the casino would provide, Black said.
"We've got people in the union halls who don't have jobs. The construction trades people are for it. Most of the groups and organizations in Danville and in Vermilion County are for it," he said. "So as distasteful as it might be to some it's an opportunity that you just can't turn your back on. I've never understood people who say, 'Yes, we want jobs and we want investment, but not those jobs.'"
Meanwhile, other Danville and Vermilion County officials are gearing up for a monthlong effort to promote the Danville casino. The 96th General Assembly is scheduled to be in session from Jan. 3 to Jan. 11, giving gambling expansion supporters as many as eight days to get the bill through the Legislature.
"First, I'll be strategizing with Bill (Black) about who the players are on each side of the fence and which ones do we need to meet with," Danville Mayor Scott Eisenhauer said. "Then obviously I'll be making phone calls and sending letters. And then when we get into January, I'll probably spend every day at the Capitol, trying to meet with and talk to and testify wherever I can so that we provide as much support as we can."
One of the selling points of Danville's casino plan, Eisenhauer said, is a revenue-sharing component.
"What we would like to do," Eisenahuer said, "is to do some revenue sharing with educational entities throughout Vermilion County. While we don't have a formal proposal that we've put in front of people, we've certainly gone to and had some very informal and brief discussions that this is something we've been thinking about."
The revenue-sharing plan not only would broaden community support for the casino but would "help improve our educational system," Eisenhauer said.
"There's no question that our educational systems also need additional money in this county. Here's a way we can use some of this newfound money and help them as well," the mayor said.
Eisenhauer said a market study done "five or six years ago" projected $11 million in annual revenue from the riverboat casino to the city. Since then, Illinois' gaming business has declined and Indiana has opened new casinos.
"Now we're probably looking at something between $7 million and $8 million in local revenue, although that's just what's generated from the gaming facility itself. What we have not figured into the calculation is the additional sales tax, the food and beverage tax, the hotel-motel tax that would be generated by ancillary positions around the facility," Eisenhauer said.
He said he is "extremely optimistic" about Danville's chances.
"I got excited two years ago when we were able to get this through the Senate and I had thought that that would be the more-difficult chamber. Then it died in the House," he said. "Now I'm back to being extremely optimistic and maybe a little more so because I think the state and the legislators within it are really starting to recognize that any revenue of choice, specifically, is a benefit to the state now. That's why, from a legislative perspective, it should be an easier vote. This is a tax of choice. You choose to go to the boat."
But Vicki Haugen, president and CEO of the Vermilion Advantage economic development agency, was more circumspect.
"The homework's been done. The impact statement was done a couple of years when we were at this point. We know the positive impact financially and economically that it could have. We have done the face-to-face visits in other locations," she said. "We are encouraged by what it could mean but when you're dealing with the legislative process at any level you take one day at a time."
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