So close, but yet so far. The bill that would have established a constitutional referendum on a state lottery went down to defeat, failing to clear the last hurdle. Governor Robert Bentley who backed a state lottery to help fund the state’s struggling Medicaid program, was disappointed.
“I just can’t believe the legislature would not allow the people of the state of Alabama to vote on this issue,” Bentley said. “They looked those children in the eye today, those that voted against it, and they said, ‘I am not going to do anything to fund your health insurance.’” Many Alabama children will go without full health insurance without the funds that the lottery would have generated.
But it came so close. Just before midnight last Thursday, on a 64-35 vote the Alabama House of Representatives passed SB83, a bill sponsored by state Senator Jim McClendon. Earlier, lawmakers voted 61-37; 63 votes were required to pass the bill. The second vote followed hours of contentious debate and deep opposition to gambling as a revenue source.
The bill returns to the Senate where lawmakers approved it 21-12 late last week. Senators determined that the House changes were too extensive and voted the bill down 23-7. One of the changes included defining the lottery as paper tickets in order to prohibit electronic lottery terminals. Lawmakers in the Senate had voted down changing the bill to allow casino gambling and steering more lottery proceeds to education. But Democrats in the House wanted to allow video lottery terminals to aid state racetracks, and complained that the Senate bill protected the gaming monopoly of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. When Democrats in the Senate withdrew their support, Republicans backed out too, dooming the bill.
“It was a domino effect. Once one thing fell apart, it all fell apart,” Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, who supported expanded gaming, said.
Democrats complained that Bentley lottery only insistence ended their support.
“If the governor did nothing, it would still be a clean lottery,” said Senator Bobby Singleton. “That’s all we were asking was to put more money on the table,” saying that VLTs at tracks could have provided an immediate revenue infusion.
Bentley said a lottery would raise $225 million annually. The bill would have directed 10 percent of lottery proceeds to education and 90 percent to the general fund budget, with the first $100 million going to the Alabama Medicaid Agency. Lawmakers added an amendment to steer 1 percent of the general fund money to rural fire departments.
If voters had approved the bill in a statewide referendum, Alabama would become the 45th state with a lottery. “The purpose of this bill is to allow the citizens of Alabama to tell us if they want a lottery or not. Let our citizens have the opportunity to vote, yes or no, whether or not they want a lottery,” state Rep. Alan Harper, the House bill sponsor, said.
If the proposal is surfaces again and succeeds, a special election could be held or it could be placed on the 2018 general election ballot.
“I will say this: We are not done. You will see this bill again. We will keep going. My goal is to respond to the citizens of Alabama who want the right to vote,” Senator Jim McClendon, the bill’s sponsor, said.
Senators will return to Montgomery on September 6 to consider alternatives to fund Medicare and fix the general fund.
During debate, supporters said Alabama loses money every day as lottery players from Alabama travel to three lottery states on its border to buy tickets. State Rep. Kerry Rich said, “I can tell you for a fact that thousands—and I’m talking about thousands of people up in my area—go over to Tennessee and they buy tickets.”
Opponents said lotteries have not helped solve budget problems in other states, and that they prey upon the poorest citizens. State Rep. Rich Wingo said, “They don’t market them in Mountain Brook. They market them in lower income communities.”
The front desk of the House was clogged with phone calls after Bentley gave out his Capitol office phone number and urged people to contact their legislators. A pamphlet that mysteriously appeared on legislators’ desks in violation of House rules said the state risked losing “God’s blessing.”
Bentley also issued a letter to lawmakers denying rumors that he was pursuing a gambling compact with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, who operate casinos in Atmore, Montgomery and Wetumpka. Bentley said the allegations were “blatantly false.”
In 1999 Alabama voters rejected a lottery proposed by then-Governor Don Siegelman.
