Alabama state Senator Jabo Waggoner said both parties are open to all options–including a lottery and Las Vegas-style gambling—to help plug the state’s 0 million budget deficit. Waggoner said in his 40-plus years as a lawmaker, he’s never seen a budget situation this serious. “We’re facing a serious shortfall. We’re looking at every possible means of raising more money without new taxes. Everything you can think of will be on the table, you know a compact with the Indians, a lottery. I’m not saying any of that will pass. But we’re going to look at everything.”
Waggoner noted a gaming compact with Native American tribes could generate millions in revenue. “This compact would say you can offer the Las Vegas-type casinos but in return you’re going to pay to the state of Alabama x number of dollars,” he said. The governor would have the final word on drawing up a compact with state tribes.
Raising taxes also is an option but a remote one. “I just don’t think we’ll go there. But here again, it’s something we’re going to look at, something that will be on the table,” he said. State Senator Linda Coleman noted, “If we increase say, property taxes, and that’s a non-regressive tax. I think we need to look at that. We brag on the fact that Alabama has the lowest property taxes. In this case, you get what you pay for.”
Coleman disagreed with Waggoner about the possibility of cutting government services to save money. “Where would they cut? Where are they going to start with, public safety? Are you cutting staff for corrections? Are you cutting healthcare?” Coleman asked.
Waggoner responded, “The last four years, we have reduced the number of employees from 38,000 to 33,000. We’re trying to cut back on state government, make it more efficient, cut out duplication and we’re going to do that and in doing that, we do save millions of dollars. We’re not going to cut back on services that would be noticed substantially by the people of Alabama,” said Waggoner.
