Bedell

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Are Illinois lawmakers so anxious to squeeze more state revenue out of gambling that they’re trying to circumvent debate on the issue?

That’s the claim of Anita Bedell, a Springfield anti-gambling lobbyist. She contacted me today to say she believes she was snookered in a morning House committee hearing where a bill to legalize video gambling was approved.

Bedell had submitted a written “witness slip,” which is how you tell the committee chair that you want to speak for or against a bill. But after the bill’s sponsor testified, she says, the committee chair, state Rep. Dan Burke, D-Chicago, ended debate and called for “leave” to declare the bill passed without further discussion.

It’s not unusual for committee chairs to rubber-stamp bills in that manner on non-controversial topics. But a bill to expand gambling, Bedell maintains, can hardly be called non-controversial.

“We started to raise our hands and they just moved on,” Bedell said. “They just didn’t want to hear what we had to say. . . . They railroaded it through.”

Burke’s response: “Why didn’t she stand up? . . . If she had an interest in the matter, she should have stood up.” The handling of the bill was “routine,” he insisted. “It was not a `push-through.’ ”

The bill, HB4239, now goes to the full House for consideration.