People who've waited more than a year for Illinois leaders to finish a state budget might start to feel like the prospects of a compromise are similar to the odds of winning the lottery.
Now, Illinois Lottery winners might — again — face the prospects of not being paid their jackpots in a timely manner if no spending deal is struck by the end of the month.
Last year, lottery winners sued the state to get their payouts and eventually did after Gov. Bruce Rauner and lawmakers agreed on a patchwork budget plan.
That plan, though, expires with the budget year on June 30. Attorney Thomas A. Zimmerman Jr., who represented about three dozen lottery winners in that lawsuit, said he's prepared to act quickly again.
Illinois Lottery officials wouldn't speculate on what happens after July 1, but they pushed for a short-term budget plan Rauner proposed May 31 that would pay winners and leaned on Democrats.
"Lottery prizes will continue to be paid to all winners prior to the end of the fiscal year, June 30," spokesman Stephen Rossi said. "We encourage the majority party in the General Assembly to pass the governor's stopgap budget proposal."
With interest
Zimmerman said his clients continue to seek $1.5 million in interest from the state as a result of delayed payouts last year.
Some social services advocates and college officials aren't getting payments from the state and warned of serious fallout even as they've watched lottery winners collect before them. A lawsuit from dozens of social services providers is trying to get them paid, too.
Not the only ones
Also in the plan that paid for lottery winners last year: individual suburbs' share of gasoline taxes and gambling taxes.
In the absence of a budget compromise, that money will stop flowing July 1, too.
"History is repeating itself," Des Plaines Mayor Matt Bogusz said.
Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain said officials have talked about what programs might be considered optional if the stalemate continues.
"I think that's the prudent thing to do," he said.
When Tax Time Rolls Around: Try Giving Illinois an IOU Instead of Cash and See What Happens!
Mr. Raven62,
I don't know if I'd try that, but I'm thinking about our crumbling system, and what I'm going to do,
if it ever gets to the point where I'm so fed up with my state's shenanigans, that I'm actually going to think:
"Is playing the lotto, even worth it, anymore?"
Week by week, I just hang on, and on, and on, and like to think that we're not in the same boat as IL.
I'm sorry for those players there, in IL. It must suck to get to the store,
get your lotto ticket, and then not only hope to win, but hope your state isn't going to all of a sudden scoop lotto players
into the corner.
Mr. Groppo
Can we predict how much in dollars this is going to hurt the lottery in Illinois? Here come some more lawsuits.
Neighboring States will get more lottery business. Indiana, Missouri, Iowa. Those are lucky states.
Any State that has no problem taking money from its citizens when purchasing lottery tickets etc & then refusing to payout has NO right staying in business.Just awful.
There was a time when Russia paid its citizens with vodka- don't know how that finally turned out.Terrible,terrible.
Yeah if this happens again, Illinois players just need to boycott.
Illinois is truly a failed state, it's like the Venezuela of the USA lol.
I am stunned by this. How is this even possible? Why would anyone even play the lottery in the state any more?
? here what happens if a scratch ticket winners tickets expire before a budget is reached? Will they still be able to collect winnings even if the ticket can not be claimed? Or will the be SOL.
You still submit the claim as normal. But instead of a check, you get an iou, to be paid once our lawmakers get their heads out of their you-know-whats.
Withhold all pay to these Lawmakers, until the lottery players have been paid. After all is said and done, then vote them out....!!!!
I'm no expert on Illinois but i'm pretty sure most of the population lives in Chicago and the suburbs of it so Indiana and Wisconsin would be the big winners from the Illinois pioneers.
Illinois lottery...
We're not gonna pay but play anyway ??
Welcome to the 3rd world USA. It will get worse.
Illinois residents should vote with their pockets, and play other state lotteries. It you can't travel to other states, you can subscribe to Megabucks Doubler, from the Massachusetts Lottery by phone from any state.
Why isn't the prize fund ring-fenced directly from original ticket sales like it is here in the UK? its utterly bizzare the way US lotteries seem to be run.