Court upholds Illinois construction bill funded by video poker

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Gov.Pat Quinn says hello to Will County Executive Lawrence Walsh and former Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson Monday, July 11, 2011 at the Chicago Southland Chamber of Commerce luncheon. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media

Updated: July 12, 2011 2:07AM

SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Supreme Court handed Gov. Pat Quinn a major legal victory Monday, unanimously upholding the constitutionality of a $31 billion state construction program funded in part by the unpopular legalization of video poker.

The 7-0 decision set aside a state appeals court ruling in January that sided with Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz, who sought to block higher state taxes that hit his family liquor distributorship.

Those increased liquor taxes ­— along with higher vehicle registration fees and taxes on candy, soft drinks and beauty products — were part of the revenue stream that lawmakers used to bankroll the bricks-and-mortar program challenged by Wirtz.

The construction program includes funding for an array of big-ticket items, including $600 million for Chicago school projects, a $125 million overhaul for Interstate 190 at O’Hare, $400 million statewide for high-speed rail and a $40 million West Side campus for Chicago State University.

Wirtz, who is also an investor in the Sun-Times Media Group, which owns the Chicago Sun-Times, had argued the 2009 law that approved the tax and fee hikes and construction spending violated a provision in the Illinois Constitution that limits legislation to a single subject.

When it passed, the package was described as legislation dealing with “revenue.” But it also contained a requirement that the University of Illinois conduct a study on the effect on families who buy lottery tickets.

The link to “revenue” was questioned by the appeals court and described by Wirtz’s lawyer during arguments before the Supreme Court as “logrolling in the worst possible way.”

The justices determined that everything in the law has a clear tie to the construction program.

“All of the provisions have a natural and logical connection to the single subject of capital projects,” Justice Anne Burke wrote in the court’s opinion. “The few provisions that do not directly raise revenue are still related to the overall subject of the act in that they help to implement the other provisions.”

Wirtz had also argued that tax increases for beer, wine and spirits were out of proportion in the legislation, pointing to how taxes on beer jumped by 4.6 cents a gallon, while the tax on liquor marketed by Wirtz’s company — Wirtz Beverage Illinois LLC — increased by $4.05 a gallon.

The construction program — which Quinn dubbed “Illinois Jobs Now!” — had been billed as a massive job creator designed to jumpstart the state’s sputtering economy. When he signed the legislation, Quinn promised Illinois’ largest capital-works program ever would create or retain 439,000 jobs.

The ruling spares Illinois from the complicated task of having to refund hundreds of millions of dollars it has collected the past two years and a different set of lawmakers from re-enacting the revenues that could have been stricken by the court.

Arguably the most unpopular among those has been video poker, which would be permitted as a legal gambling platform in bars and restaurants across the state.

As of January, 80 communities and counties had voted to ban video poker in their jurisdictions, according to the Illinois Gaming Board. That was on top of an already-existing prohibition in Chicago on video gaming.

The legal concept most at play in Wirtz’ lawsuit against the state typically ties together popular legislative issues with unpopular ones like video poker that could never pass on their own. The practice, known as logrolling, dates to the state’s earliest days.

Abraham Lincoln, as an Illinois House member, resorted to it during a legislative session that began in late 1836 and spilled over into the following spring. Lincoln was a primary supporter of a massive public-works program and used it to round up votes in the Legislature to move the state capital from Vandalia to its present location in Springfield.

Lincoln promised “support for a railroad here, a canal there, and an improved road or a deepened river somewhere else, in return for pledges of votes for Springfield as the future capital,” Lincoln scholars Benjamin P. Thomas and Michael Burlingame wrote in their 2008 book

The ruling by the state’s high court’s drew praise from one of the new law’s chief legislative architects, Illinois Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago).

“This ruling serves as a reminder of just how important the 2009 jobs program was and what the General Assembly can accomplish when politics is set aside and people participate,” Cullerton said.

Labor unions also praised the ruling.

“Thousands of Illinoisans are working on projects that make our state a better place to live and work,” said Michael Carrigan, president of the Illinois AFL-CIO. “This decision keeps those projects moving and people on the job.”

Wirtz’s lawyer, Sam Vinson, expressed disappointment with the opinion. It wasn’t clear whether the firm would appeal the decision in federal court or when the state might lay hands on approximately $140 million in liquor-tax revenues that were being paid into escrow while the legal case played itself out.