By Matthew Walberg

– For the third consecutive year, the private firm hired run the Illinois Lottery has failed to bring in the profits it promised to raise for the state, even as its parent companies continue to be paid more each year to provide games and services.

According to a Tribune review of preliminary year-end data, Northstar Lottery Group posted a net profit of $738 million – nearly a quarter billion less than it pledged to bring in for the 2014 fiscal year, which ended June 30.

The figure is less than the company raised for the state in the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years after it became the first private company in the nation to take over day-to-day operations of a state lottery.

After three years, Northstar is about $480 million behind what it committed to bring into the state’s coffers, prompting one of the company’s harshest critics to renew questions about why Gov. Pat Quinn has not fired the company.

“This is an epic fail by the governor,” said State Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo. “He personally signed this contract, so this is all his baby…If he needs to clean house, that’s what he should do. That’s what other executives do in the real world.”

In 2010, Gov. Pat Quinn chose Northstar Lottery Group to manage the lottery in hopes that the firm would boost flagging lottery revenues, a major source of funding for education and infrastructure.

The company was formed by a consortium of two lottery industry giants: Scientific Games, headquartered in New York, and GTECH, a subsidiary of the Italy-based Lottomatica.

Quinn has said little about the performance of the private manager, even as one of the key architects of legislation that enabled the state to hire an outside firm to run the games has expressed his disappointment with Northstar.

In June, State Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, told the Tribune he was “extremely disappointed” by Northstar’s performance and urged Quinn “to hold the firm accountable and take whatever steps are necessary.”

On Monday, Cullerton spokesman John Patterson said the senator declined comment on the firm’s latest shortfall.

“He’s going let his previous statement and the numbers speak for themselves at this point,” Patterson said.

A spokeswoman for Quinn said that his administration expects Northstar to meet the revenue targets outlined in its winning bid.

“Protecting taxpayers is our foremost priority and our office continues to closely monitor the situation,” spokeswoman Katie Hickey said earlier this week. “Through the duration of the contract, we have expected Northstar to follow the private management agreement and meet the targets in its bid.”

Northstar spokeswoman Avis LaVelle said the company would not have any response until the 2014 results have been audited, something that has yet to be completed for the two prior years.

The company previously defended its performance, noting that it has brought in more money as private manager than the state was able to when it handled day-to-day operations. Company officials have also pointed out that the firm has paid the state $60 million in penalties for missing its previous revenue targets.

Meanwhile, records show Northstar paid GTECH and Scientific Games nearly $85 million collectively last year, up from about $84 million and $70 million in the previous two years.

“I met with the governor and his staff on this back in May,” Franks said. “They said, ‘We’re looking at it.’ It’s now August.”

Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-firm-hired-to-run-illinois-lottery-has-failed-to-hit-profit-goals-for-3rd-straight-year-20140812-story.html

Brief PhillyLabor Editorial: Take Notice Governor Corbett. Privatization is not the answer!

By WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press

– Hours before hundreds of workers were to hold a prayer rally as three casinos are set to close, New Jersey officials issued a final closure order for another one.

The state Gaming Enforcement Division gave final approval to Revel’s shutdown on Sept. 1 and 2, signing the order on Tuesday night and releasing it on Wednesday.

Employees of Revel, the Showboat and Trump Plaza will attend a prayer service at a church near the casinos on Wednesday.

Showboat and Revel are due to close over Labor Day weekend, with Trump Plaza shutting down on Sept. 16.

The shutdowns are part of a rapid unraveling of Atlantic City’s gambling market, which began the year with 12 casinos, but will have eight before summer ends.

The Atlantic Club closed in January.

Source: http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/71807-revel-shutdown-okd-as-prayer-service-nears-?linktype=hp_topstory

By Joel Mathis

– Sure Gov. Corbett is far behind Democratic challenger Tom Wolf in this fall’s election campaign. But Pittsburgh Tribune columnist Brad Bumsted says the governor could still win.

The scenario:

For one, there needs to be low voter turnout statewide, especially in Philadelphia, where the most Democrats in the state live. Republicans are good at getting out the GOP vote even in unexciting elections like this one. There’s no presidential race, no big draw other than Wolf-Corbett (yawn).

President Obama’s unpopularity continues to play out on health care and the “war on coal.”

Corbett needs to define Wolf before Wolf really defines himself further.

Mostly, though, Bumstead says the governor needs to campaign hard on a big reform initiative — say, like calling for term limits — and pray voters don’t notice he didn’t totally deliver on his previous reform promises. “Still,” Bumsted writes, “a win is not out of the question.”

Source: http://www.phillymag.com/news/2014/08/18/gov-corbett-still-win-thing/

PhillyLabor Editorial: Now more than ever, it’s very important not to listen to poll results telling us that Tom Wolf has a commanding lead over Gov. Corbett and we have no worries. We can absolutely take nothing for granted in this 2014 gubernatorial election. As a labor community, who would would be washed away if it was up to the current Corbett Administration, we need to get engaged, keep engaged, push to the to the end and most of all Vote for Tom Wolf on November 4th like our union livelihoods depend on it because they do!

By David P. Gaibis

– The Republicans’ war on labor has taken American workers from a moderate lifestyle story to a rags story. In the beginning, before the labor movement, employers worked their “captive labor” 12 hours a day, seven days a week for 25 cents an hour with no safety rules or regulations.

These employers are directly responsible for the creation and need for labor unions, the Department of Labor, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, just to name a few.

In the 1980s, then President Ronald Reagan abolished the cost-of-living adjustment, citing it as inflationary, thus freezing wages as the cost of living skyrocketed. This move alone was instrumental in creating what is now known as “the working poor.”

This brings us to 2014. We have Republican governors quoted as saying they want no labor unions in their states. Labor unions are the only real path for the middle class to secure a profitable wage. Poverty is not self- inflicted; just go to your local grocery store or gas station. What do you think a worker should be paid, not only to survive, but to profit?

It’s a fact that corporate America and the wealthy white Republican male has tried to buy and run our country with their money and are responsible for all the big government in Washington, D.C. These people would like nothing better than to go “back to the beginning” when everything was stacked in their favor and the American workers were left with nothing. With the recent Republican majority Supreme Court decisions, they are well on their way to just that.

American workers need to wake up. Save collective bargaining so you can retire with dignity. Our constitution says “for the people, by the people.” It does not say “for the rich, by the rich.”

David P. Gaibis, New Castle, Pa.

Correction

Dr. Mark C. Vopat, a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University, notes that his letter published in Tuesday’s Vindicator contained two errors:

First, he listed the cost of cellphones for the YSU’s Athletic Department as $175,000. The correct cost is $17,500.

Second, 44 percent — not 48 percent — of overhead lighting in Bliss Recital Hall must be replaced.

Source: http://www.vindy.com/news/2014/aug/14/republicans-war-on-labor-is-gaining-stea/?newswatch

By Joel Mathis

– CBS Philly reports that SEPTA has come to contract terms with Regional Rail electric workers — but that negotiations remain “tense” with Regional Rail engineers.

If ratified, the electrical workers would get an 11.5 percent raise — this, after a four-year contract dispute.

CBS Philly reports on the engineers:

“We are aware that our brothers in the IBEW have resolved their dispute with SEPTA. However, we remain as far apart as we were when PEB 246 rendered its recommendations. I would not characterize the discussions as negotiations. Our discussions are best described as, ‘tense’,” Stephen J. Bruno, Vice President of Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said in a statement.

In June, the engineers and electricians walked off the job together for a day only to be forced back to work a day later by presidential order.

http://www.phillymag.com/news/2014/08/14/septa-settles-regional-rail-electric-workers/