From the Sun-Times:

Daley walks out of gov's transit meeting
POLITICS | Summit focused on gambling, not CTA crisis: City Hall

November 15, 2007
BY CHRIS FUSCO, FRAN SPIELMAN AND DAVE MCKINNEY Staff Reporters

Mayor Daley on Wednesday disgustedly walked out of a transit summit called by Gov. Blagojevich because the discussion focused too much on new forms of gambling and not enough on averting a CTA crisis.

Daley didn't leave those who attended the closed-door session with the impression he was upset. And, publicly, the mayor said he was "very optimistic" that Blagojevich and state legislative leaders would generate more money for the CTA, Metra and Pace.

But City Hall sources said Daley departed angry and frustrated because he kept being stymied in his efforts to discuss bailing out the CTA well ahead of the agency's latest deadline for fare increases and service cuts: Jan. 20.

The mayor walked out after a little more than an hour.

"It felt like a classic bait-and- switch," one City Hall source said. Daley "was led there to believe they were talking about the CTA when the aim was to talk about gaming."

Daley's dismay comes as Blagojevich plans another closed-door transit session this morning. Daley is not expected to attend, but City Hall aides plan to go.

Daley and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) have tried to treat transit funding and expanded gambling as separate issues on the political landscape, but Blagojevich and other state lawmakers have linked them.

Madigan favors a quarter-percent sales tax increase to fund transit -- an idea Daley publicly has supported.

But Daley also is open to considering a proposal being backed by Blagojevich, Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago), House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego) and Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson (R-Greenville) that would use a chunk of the state's existing sales tax on gasoline to fund transit.

For the gas tax idea to work, lawmakers would need to find revenue to replace the gas tax money being siphoned from the state treasury.

Blagojevich favors closing corporate tax "loopholes" to fill the gap, while Cross and Watson say "modest" transit fare increases should be enacted to decrease the overall pot of money needed. Another option to replace the gas tax money is using cash from new forms of gambling.

Lawmakers also want to use gambling cash to finance a multibillion-dollar statewide construction program. So far, a Chicago casino, two new casinos outside Chicago and slots at horse tracks are being discussed, but lawmakers might need to expand gambling even more to make everything work.
'Shouting and threats'

Blagojevich's top ally, Jones, said the lingering questions about gambling and transit shouldn't stop lawmakers from reaching a deal soon.

"I believe we can wrap this up in the next day or two, really, because the issues that are separating us are very, very minute," Jones said.

Madigan -- who has feuded with Blagojevich and Jones this year -- might have other plans. The speaker walked out of Wednesday's session at the Thompson Center about 30 minutes after Daley. Madigan said the meeting "deteriorated into a nonproductive level" that included "shouting and threats and allegations" after the mayor's departure.

Madigan would not talk about the strife, but it later became known that he had sparred with state Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago) over a proposal to set aside 2 percent of proposed casino profits for poor communities. Hendon and Madigan also disagreed about requirements that minorities and women be included in casino ownership.

"Speaker Madigan is the only one who doesn't agree that African Americans ought to participate in the ownership of the [casino licenses]," Blagojevich said.

Madigan denied that through his spokesman, Steve Brown.

Madigan, Brown said, backs a proposal by the House black caucus that minority and women casino owners would be selected through lotteries. Those lotteries, Madigan says, would help prevent problems that plagued the failed Emerald Casino project in Rosemont. When asked whether he perceived Blagojevich as trying to accuse Madigan of being racist, Brown said, "He's trying to, but it doesn't wash."

Abby Ottenhoff, the governor's spokeswoman, said the governor simply was trying to explain what took place between Madigan and Hendon.

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