Search for better info starts a bit late

Let’s see now. Gov. Pat Quinn and the four legislative leaders met last week to discuss pension reform and decided they should get more information from schools about the impact of shifting pension costs away from the state and onto local school districts.

It seems people weren’t real comfortable with the information they were getting about the impact of cost-shifting on districts. Some of it was inconsistent, and other information was lacking.

So, now there’s going to be a renewed effort to make sure lawmakers are working with complete and accurate information.

OK, fine. But you wonder, then, what was going on when the House was supposed to consider a pension reform plan that included cost-shifting fairly late in the session.

Surely, they wouldn’t have passed a pension reform plan that wasn’t clearly understood.

Nah, that never happens.

Sign or not

A week ago Friday, Quinn was asked whether he would sign the big gambling expansion bill approved in the closing hours of the spring session.

Quinn tried to duck the question by saying he would have to review the bill. It prompted one frustrated reporter at Quinn’s news conference to essentially say: “C’mon, you know what’s in the bill. Are you going to sign it?”

Quinn continued to bob and weave like a successful boxer.

He must have read the bill over the weekend, because on the next Monday he was again asked whether he was going to sign the gambling expansion bill. “I wouldn’t hold your breath on getting that bill signed,” he said.

A reasonable person might deduce that Quinn will veto the gambling bill. For what it’s worth, Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, had predicted he would all along.

If Quinn does veto the bill, it will render moot the whole controversy over ghost voting in the Senate. The bill got 30 votes in the Senate, the minimum needed to pass. Sen. Jacqueline Collins, D-Chicago, voted for the bill, even though she said she opposes gambling expansion.