By Benjamin Yount Illinois Statehouse News
SPRINGFIELD — Marvin Perzee lives an hour and a half from Chicago, Danville and the other proposed casinos in Illinois, but as president of the Iroquois County Fair, he is one of the biggest supporters of gambling expansion in the state.
Perzee and a handful of other downstate, county fair officials visited the Capitol on Tuesday to tell Gov. Pat Quinn to sign the recently approved casino legislation.
Perzee said gambling in Chicago would pay for his fair in tiny Watseka.
“Now we’re all in trouble financially, and we need a dedicated source of monies,” said Perzee.
Lawmakers designed the gambling expansion to pump money from the new casinos and other gambling venues into Illinois’ beleaguered horse-racing industry. Money from the horsemen and horse tracks is then pumped back into the state budget and spent on local county fairs.
Perzee said that money is then spent in local communities.
“They always talk about county fair funding. It’s really county fair reimbursement, and it’s reimbursement for the premiums that the young people — the livestock exhibitors, the producers, the 4-H members, the FFA (formerly Future Farmers of America) members — the monies that they get,” said Perzee.
Lawmakers trimmed the money in the 2012 state budget for local fairs, livestock shows and the youth organization 4-H.
But the gambling expansion plan is not just about more money for prize ducks at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. The measure would add slot machines to the race track at the state fairgrounds, as well as other horse tracks statewide.
Sangamon County Board Member Chris Boyster said slots would bring visitors to the fairgrounds more often than just the 10 days of the state fair.
“This is an economic no-brainer for us — the expansion of gaming at the fairgrounds. It would be a huge economic boost,” said Boyster.
But Quinn isn’t so sure. The governor has said for weeks that the gambling expansion package is “top heavy,” and he did speculate about vetoing the proposal, or at least parts of it.
