Alabama Governor Robert Bentley has called a special legislative session, beginning August 15, to address a possible state lottery, which he said would raise 5 million annually to help fund state services. “As Alabamians we are blessed to live in a truly great state, but for it to be the best that it can be, we must solve some financial problems that have held us back for decades,” Bentley said. He stated he believed a lottery offers the “best” chance to solve the state’s financial issues. Last year legislators rejected his plan to raise taxes by 1 million to avoid cutbacks in state services.
“This solution will provide funding that we can count on year after year, without ever having to raise your taxes or put one more band-aid on our state’s money problems,” Bentley added. He also noted Alabama residents regularly buy lottery tickets in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. “Alabamians are some of their best customers. It’s time we stop supporting other state’s budgets and keep our money at home to solve our own problems,” he said.
Bentley, who once said state lotteries were as outdated as leisure suits, said he would want most of the lottery proceeds to go toward the state’s Medicaid program, which serves 1million Alabamians. The remainder would go to law enforcement and pay raises for state employees who have not had a salary increase in years. “This is not just about a lottery. This is about our people. I will not as your governor, and also as a physician, watch as our most vulnerable and most helpless go without a doctor’s care. I can’t bear to think of a half a million children who through no fault of their own are born into poverty and have no basic way to get basic medical treatment,” Bentley said.
If lawmakers approve a lottery measure by August 24, it could go before voters in a statewide referendum on the November 8 ballot.
Currently Alabama is one of six states, including Mississippi, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, and Nevada, that does not have a state lottery. Voters rejected former Governor Don Siegelman’s lottery proposal in 1999, which was widely opposed by church groups.
Those same groups and others remain opposed. Alabama Citizens Action Program Executive Director Joe Godfrey said a lottery is state-sponsored which means the state targets the poorest people.
“Governor Bentley has made a big deal that he was a deacon in his Baptist church, a Christian,” says Godfrey. “I have a hard time seeing how a man in a leadership role in his state could support something that will be so damaging to his people.”
Addressing that issue, Bentley stated, “I look at a lottery as somewhat different from other gambling. I don’t think that you have the social problems you have with a lottery that you do with casino gambling.”
State Senator Jim McClendon said he has been in talks with Bentley about the lottery bill he plans to introduce in the special session. He said his constituents overwhelmingly want to vote on a lottery and don’t understand why Alabama does not have one. House Minority Leader Craig Ford added, “Democrats have spent two decades calling for a lottery, and I am grateful to see Governor Bentley and some Republican legislators taking up our cause.” Ford said lottery proceeds should fund college scholarships.
Three-fifths of lawmakers would have to approve the legislation, since the Alabama constitution bans most games of chance. Then a majority of voters would be required to approve an amendment allowing a lottery.
But several legislators remain opposed to gambling, and some may support a measure to include casino gambling as well as a lottery. A lottery bill stalled in the last legislative session when lawmakers couldn’t agree on how to direct the proceeds.
The Poarch Creek Indians, who operate two casinos on their lands in Alabama, also have some concerns about a state lottery. They’re worried that their casinos’ casual players could be tempted to stay home and buy Powerball jackpots and their higher-spending players could be content with low-cost scratch-off tickets.
But the tribe isn’t just wringing its hands. It is Alabama’s single largest political donor, having given $3,049,000 to state politicians and campaigns in the past three years, according to public finance records. Mostly it gives to Democrats, but Republican state Senators Greg Albritton, Tom Whatley and Jabo Waggoner all have accepted $10,000 or more from Poarch Creek PACs. A tribal PAC also gave $5,000 to state Rep. Mac McCutcheon, who recently was chosen by the Republican caucus to replace convicted felon Mike Hubbard as House speaker.
The tribe sponsored a party featuring Trace Adkins for the Alabama GOP during the Republican National Convention. It hired Boyz II Men to perform for the Alabama delegation at the Democratic National Convention. And when Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange led a legal fight to close the tribe’s Alabama casinos, it gave $1,500,000 to his Democratic opponent, Joe Hubbard.
