Ticket sales slumped by more than $20 million in October as lottery players balked at a broken system.

Good-faith negotiation and trust were foundational to all of the deals made, but some Statehouse Democrats pushed for extreme solutions while others were actively compromising.

Gov. Rauner and the Illinois House of Representatives support a bill to release lottery winnings, but Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are standing in the way. Now Illinois Lottery winners may not be paid until 2016.

Illinois began August with a $4.4 billion dollar backlog of unpaid bills. If lawmakers would have kept the promises they made in 2011, the backlog would be zero today – or close to it. In January 2011, Illinois lawmakers pushed through a record tax hike that raised the income tax rate on individuals to 5...