Scott Fitzgerald: “Turning to a June 5, 1995, Chicago Tribune article, by Rick Pearson, a Tribune staff writer, the headline is…”

“Turning to a June 5, 1995, Chicago Tribune article, by Rick Pearson, a Tribune staff writer, the headline is: ``Taxpayers Face a Big Loss on Hotel Loans; GOP Insider Denies Political Deal.'' He has achieved a unique and almost mystical aura as a clout-heavy Republican power broker, fundraiser and riverboat gambling captain. But William Cellini says he doubts he will ever be a hotel developer again. Cellini is at the center of a controversy involving a proposal by state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka to settle $40 million owed to taxpayers on two hotel loans for $10 million. He said he and other investors in the Springfield Renaissance never made a dime and will never see any return. Cellini also maintained that the state has probably recouped the original $120 million lent to developers of the Renaissance, the Collinsville Holiday Inn and 16 other projects because the developers paid 17 percent interest during the construction in the high-interest period of the early 1980s. ``Would I do it again? Never,'' Cellini said in his first public comments on the hotel deal. ``Well, never is a long time. Let's put it this way: I'll never do another one with the government. You're too high-profile, and then everybody comes to these (political) conclusions.'”