Illinois readers will already be aware of the flurry of activity due to a May 31 deadline for the regular legislative session in Illinois: legalizing pot, passing a budget, and funding a massive infrastructure construction plan with tax boosts and a near-doubling of gambling positions in the state, along with some 300 other bills that sailed under the radar in the last days of the session.  And — sadly, but not surprisingly — the details of these bills were largely hammered out in backroom deals, without any transparency.  It's a discouraging story, and readers elsewhere can choose whether to take this as a cautionary tale or revel in schadenfreude.

Now, part of my initial frustration was due to the funding side of things:  the fact that there was no reporting, that I could tell, on how revenues from pot and gambling increases were being calculated, and there appears to be a dearth of analysis on the impact of pot and gambling on those Illinoisans who are already living paycheck-to-paycheck, other than a repeated assertion that people are already going to Indiana to gamble so we might as well keep the revenue in-state.