The Illinois Legislature has crept out of town, ending its veto session and again leaving the typical confusion, frustration and procrastination in its wake.

They’ll be back next year. Darn the luck. Meantime, let us pick up the pieces:

Expanded gambling, including a Lake County casino? No, but at least the Legislature seems more aware of what will not happen as long as Pat Quinn is governor. We never viewed opposing slot machines at horse tracks to be a matter of principled conscience, but Quinn apparently does.

The failure of the Rube Goldberg Gambling Machine occurred for much the same reasons that other massive initiatives fail in Springfield — too many moving parts Crazy-Glued together. Every gambling plan featured a built-in constituency at the Statehouse, and each constituency tended to cancel out a competitor.

Odds seem good the Legislature will figure out the answer next year, and Lake County finally will get its casino, probably at Fountain Square in Waukegan. In the meantime, the state loses out on an estimated $500 million a year in revenue and 20,000 or so jobs.

Pension reform? Not really, although legislators did smack down union officials who have pole-vaulted through various loopholes to plunder taxpayers with outrageous and entirely unearned pension schemes. As for the approximately $80 billion in unfunded state pensions, lawmakers had no enthusiasm for taking on public employee unions heading into an election year. Which means the can has been kicked down the road again. Illinois officials have done that so often that maybe “Illinois: We kick the can down the road” should be the state’s new motto.

Tax reform for the CME, Sears and the working poor? The fact that tax sweeteners for the CME Group (which runs the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange) and Sears got steamrolled in the House was the session’s biggest shock. Republicans want tax breaks for companies to ensure they stay in Illinois. Democrats demand more tax credits for the working poor. The two views all but canceled out each other out, and nothing got done. Except Indianapolis is wooing the CME to move out of Illinois and Columbus, Ohio, is doing the same to lure Sears to the Buckeye State.

Threats by CME and Sears are believable enough that legislators say they’ll get together within a month for another run at a solution.

In sum, the brief session that ended this month was ineffective, if not abysmal. Did you really expect more in this dysfunctional Land of Lincoln?