Illinois Guv Will Pay Debt to Game Biz ...Next Month

December 19, 2006
Ask and ye shall receive. Say "pay up sucka", and you might get a little something too...

According to the Chicago Tribune, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and Attorney General Lisa Madigan will explain by Friday just how the state plans to reimburse the video game industry for more than $520,000 in legal fees.

U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly, who ruled last December that the Safe Games Illinois Act was unconstitutional, ordered Blagojevich's administration to explain how it planned to pay its debt. Game industry lawyers had previsiouly complained that Illinois was dragging its feet.

State official said yesterday that funds would be taken from unspent corners of the budget, and would be turned over to the ESA by the end of January.

The court will rule on the proposed payment plan on Wednesday.

- Reporting from Canada, GP Correspondent Colin "Jabrwock" McInnes
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Comments

Submitted by CyberSkull (not verified) on Sun, 12/24/2006 - 21:06.
I recommend getting the money out of the salaries of all of the bill's supporters.

Submitted by Salen (not verified) on Wed, 12/20/2006 - 09:07.
Dear Illinois, stop dragging your feet. I truly wish the Judge would treat this matter like folks do when it comes not paying their bills. Hrm. Thats an idea. Think the judge can get a repoman to repo the govener's stuff until the bill's paid?

Still, if Illinois had just been smart, they wouldn't be stuck with a bill now that's been racking up interest. I wonder if this will effect Illinois' credit rating. ;)

Submitted by Fojar (not verified) on Wed, 12/20/2006 - 14:41.
"Dude, I'll like totally pay you, I just need like, one more month man, and I'll totally have the money" *cough*"

Submitted by Merc25 (not verified) on Wed, 12/20/2006 - 00:13.
Here is a thought if they're sort on cash, they can take money from their own pay checks to pay for the legal fees. I know this will never happen though.

Submitted by Gray17 (not verified) on Wed, 12/20/2006 - 00:39.
Great, so they'll be going through the budget to find all the places where money they've allocated hasn't actually been spent yet in hopes of scraping up enough money to pay the legal bill they've run up? Lovely. Here's to hoping they'll be forced to include their future paychecks as part of the "unspent portions of the budget".

Submitted by HoustonDragon (not verified) on Wed, 12/20/2006 - 17:42.
If ever there was a burning reason for Illinois voters to never re-elect that governor, there you go. Over a half million dollars wasted on a campaign that was ultimately and knowingly doomed to failure even before the ink hit the paper.

There's no such thing as "unspent corners" in a tax budget if the organization is a non-profit one. Especially when dealing with public tax money, they have to account for every last cent and provide adequate explaination to the public how and what they are using that money for.

That was money that was to be used for education, health care, roadways, public utility services, and a slew of other necessities that governments are MEANT to collect taxes to cover. Instead, they just coughed up over $500,000 over the jackass governor's ego trip. He should be fired and charged with malfeasance by his constituents, and be forced to repay the amount that he just wasted.

Submitted by jace_martin (not verified) on Fri, 12/22/2006 - 21:03.
oh but i don't know if you all see the bigger picture here. Ill. Guv and his party and legal team did all the work pressing the ink to paper on the clock. If the Esa has 520k in legal fees then the state had to spend at least that much to try and fight it as well. This issue has generated over a million bucks with an aditional 520k to switch hands all at the expence of gamers and tax payers. If you are a financial supporter of the ESA you still have to consider this whole ordeal a financial loss. The good guys win, but they are now financially weaker. If you live in Ill. and are a tax payer that also supports the ESA then you're taking it from both ends and it really sucks to be you.

Like most battles like this there are winners but at what cost. Last i checked it is friday and i did not see a follow up as to what was going to be done to resolve this debt.

Submitted by gs2005 (not verified) on Wed, 12/20/2006 - 02:30.
It's too bad this didn't happen before election time-Blaggie squirming in public would have been very interesting to watch.

Submitted by Starsmore (not verified) on Wed, 12/20/2006 - 15:33.
Seriously. The judge should force every politicitian who voted yes on this bill to pay up.

Submitted by Jatone (not verified) on Tue, 12/19/2006 - 21:49.
I'm not sure but by "unspent corners of the budget" I think they mean the money that they were planning on spending but have not spent yet this year. So could come from anything.

Submitted by Terminator44 (not verified) on Tue, 12/19/2006 - 20:38.
I hope that by "unspent corners" they don't mean money from something vital like education or healthcare.

Still, they need to pay up, and it's good that they have set a definite deadline.

Submitted by Monte (not verified) on Tue, 12/19/2006 - 21:15.
Don't they mean, "Unspent coners of the buget... that COULD have been spent on something important and useful instead of being WASTED on obviously futile and overall rather useless legislation"?

no, i guess not... that's a bit too truthful for a statement...

Submitted by Brainswarm on Tue, 12/19/2006 - 21:22.
So, what happens next month when the Guv looks at the budget, and discovers that there is no unspent money in the budget? How's he going to stall then?
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