Predominantly African American or Latino, low-income Chicago communities have generated the highest lottery sales in the state.
Table of Contents
Courting Latinos
While the total population of the five collar counties grew 47 percent between 1980 and 2000, the number of Latinos in the area rose more than 300 percent. Some are attributing at least part of the Democratic Party's gains to the surge.
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Republican Turf
The Republican Party’s advantage in the collar counties has been pivotal to its dominance of Illinois gubernatorial elections. But in 1972, Democrat Daniel Walker carried 42 percent of the vote in the collars on his way to winning. And mild Democratic success there led to close elections in 1982, 1990 and 1998, when Glenn Poshard collected 213,650 collar-county votes, the most since Walker’s 257,857.
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Campaigns Vie for Suburban LatinosBy: Pamela A. LewisA shift of minorities has forced Democrats to pay attention to the collar counties in this election--and the strategy is paying dividends.
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One Year Later, CHA Program a Work in ProgressBy: Brian J. RogalA year after its launch, city officials are still struggling to define and implement an ambitious program to help public housing tenants get jobs and social services.
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Lottery Payoff Uncertain for SchoolsBy: Leah SamuelDespite the promise of bringing in more revenue for the state’s public schools, lottery money is not a bonus to schools, but just a regular part of the state’s education budget.
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Fair Share
In Illinois, all lottery profits are deposited into the state’s Common School Fund, joining money from other sources. But the state does not consider the source of lottery proceeds when splitting that fund among Illinois schools.
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Little Return
While the Illinois Lottery generated more than $500 million for public education in fiscal year 2000, it accounted for less than 10 percent of the state’s spending for primary and secondary education. The lottery’s share has steadily decreased since 1985, when the Illinois General Assembly mandated that lottery proceeds go directly toward public education.
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Cash Flow
Illinois schools received slightly more than a third of the $1.59 billion the state received in lottery proceeds in the 2002 fiscal year.
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Top Players
The state’s top 20 ZIP code areas in fiscal year 2002 lottery sales were from Chicago. Among them, six were at least 70 percent black, four were at least 60 percent Latino and three were at least 70 percent white.
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Spending More with Less
Average lottery players in mostly-black ZIP code areas spent more money and a higher percentage of their income on the lottery in fiscal year 2002 than did average lottery players in mostly-Latino and mostly-white ZIP code areas.
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A Closer Look
In a recent letter published in the Chicago Sun-Times, Terry Peterson, the Chicago Housing Authority’s chief executive officer, trumpets successes of the city’s program to connect public housing residents to social services. But several of his statements were incomplete or misleading, according to city documents.
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