SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – After calling legislators into special session on the state budget, Gov. Rod Blagojevich was a no-show Thursday at an Illinois House hearing devoted to his idea of privatizing the state lottery.

Lawmakers from both parties scolded the Democratic governor for skipping the hearing. They said it contradicts his claim that he wants to work more closely with the General Assembly to end the deadlock preventing action on a new budget.

House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, quoted some of the governor’s many statements about the importance of including lawmakers in budget negotiations and establishing “a dialogue.”

“All of that would have been made very easy, very efficient, if the governor had joined us here today,” Madigan said.

Blagojevich said he didn’t take part because Madigan was more interested in playing games and killing his proposals than in having a serious budget discussion.

After months of friction and finger-pointing, the governor and lawmakers have failed to agree on a spending plan. They had to pass a one-month budget extension so state government could keep operating after the new fiscal year began Sunday.

Blagojevich and Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, have proposed a budget that includes a mix of new casinos and higher business taxes to generate $5 billion for health care and education.

Madigan prefers to increase spending by about $1 billion through a mix of natural revenue growth and higher business taxes.

Frustrated by the impasse, Blagojevich has decided to call lawmakers into special session, requiring them to meet every day until a budget is approved.

On Thursday, the first day of the session, the Senate met and immediately adjourned. The House held a special hearing for all members to discuss the governor’s ideas for shoring up the state’s pension systems.

The systems owe $41 billion more in retirement benefits than they have money to pay. Ultimately, state government will have to come up with that money. Paying off that “unfunded liability” is eating up a bigger and bigger chunk of state revenues.

Blagojevich has proposed eliminating $26 billion of that liability by leasing the state lottery to a private company and borrowing billions of dollars to reinvest.

The lottery produces about $630 million a year for Illinois schools, and critics say privatizing the lottery would mean giving up that money without a clear replacement. They also say the reinvestment proposal is too risky because it would depend on generating more from investments than the state must pay in interest.

A top Blagojevich aide, John Filan, told House members that there is no cheap way to solve the problem. If they don’t like the governor’s proposal, they should be ready to offer one of their own, he said.

“All solutions will be expensive, very expensive, and require major new revenues,” Filan said.

When he announced the decision to hold a special session at a cost of about $36,000 a day Blagojevich said he would try to break the budget impasse by offering new proposals for lawmakers to consider.