Gambling referendum or ban?
By KEVIN P. CRAVER - kcraver@nwherald.com
WOODSTOCK – The McHenry County Board Liquor and License Committee placed bets on both of its proposals regarding video gambling.
It decided in two separate votes Monday to forward both its resolutions – one banning video gaming in unincorporated areas and the other putting it to voters – to the full County Board next week.
“I think this question is bigger than the five of us,” said committee member Barbara Wheeler, R-Crystal Lake, who supports an outright ban.
It’s a question that county and municipal governments have grappled with since Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation in July allowing video gambling in restaurants, bars and fraternal organizations to help fund the state’s $31 billion capital plan. The state gave local governments the right to opt out, which at least two dozen municipalities and three county boards have done so far.
Committee members had at first been content with putting an advisory referendum on the Feb. 2, 2010, primary ballot rather than a ban. About 90 people, many of whom supported the gambling expansion to create jobs and help local businesses, attended an Oct. 7 public hearing convened by the committee.
However, the committee earlier this month revisited a ban after reading in an influential Springfield political blog that the General Assembly might end the opt-out clause.
Although the five committee members moved both bills forward, three said they favored a referendum over a ban. Vice Chairman James Kennedy, D-Lake in the Hills, said that it would be months before eligible businesses could install the machines.
Member Bob Bless, R-Fox River Grove, agreed. Bless was the sole board member to vote against moving the ban forward to the County Board, but he voted for the referendum.
“For us to make a decision now is premature. Everybody wants the jury to be out before we even go to trial,” Bless said.
A ban by the County Board would affect only unincorporated areas, where 44 establishments have county licenses to serve liquor. Among them is the Old Rivers Inn on Route 14 between Harvard and Woodstock. Owner Bob McDaniel told the committee that a ban would be unfair to his rural business because customers who wanted to gamble would need only to drive 5 miles in either direction to do so.
Spring Grove resident Phil Webb, who owns a vending and game machine business, told the committee that opting out could jeopardize the funding of the capital plan, which could create up to 439,000 jobs over the next six years at a time that more than one Illinois resident in 10 is out of work.
“This bill gives them hope.” Webb said. “Do you want to take that hope away?”
Opponents, such as Hartland Township residents Evert and Diane Evertsen, told the committee that gambling was a bad way to fund state government.
“The lottery did us a world of good for our educational system, as we all can attest,” said Diane Evertsen, who has filed to run for County Board next year.
The Lake, Cook and DuPage county boards have already opted out of the gambling expansion, and Oak Park last week became the latest municipality to do so. Will County is holding a series of public hearings on the issue.
If you go
The County Board next meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3 at the county Administration Building, 667 Ware Road, Woodstock.
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