The North Carolina House of Representatives yesterday approved a state-run lottery that would fund various facets of public education. Some observers consider passage in the Senate and approval by Gov. Mike Easley to be easier to accomplish.
The bill soared through a smoothly run special committee meeting in the morning, then the full House narrowly passed the measure by a 61-59 margin. House Speaker Jim Black of Charlotte had stacked the committee with lottery supporters.
“A lot of people will get an education that wouldn’t get it otherwise,” said bill co-sponsor Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank.
Proceeds from the lottery, after paying for administrative costs and prizes, would be divided between public school construction (50 percent), college scholarships for the “needy” (25 percent), and a kindergarten through 12th grade “Education Enhancement Fund” (25 percent). The General Assembly would appropriate the enhancement funds for perceived shortcomings in public education — programs like Easley’s “More at Four” and for poorer school districts affected by the state Supreme Court’s Leandro decision.
The vote represented a huge victory for the governor, who has sought a lottery for education since he was first elected in 2000. The House two years ago rejected a lottery by a wide margin, but this time opponents apparently couldn’t overcome the surge of support from those tired of seeing millions spent on games in neighboring states.
Rep. Nelson Cole, a Rockingham County Democrat on North Carolina’s northern border, said many convenience stores had closed in his district and that officials in lottery-playing South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia are “laughing at us.”
“Everybody is preying on us,” he said, “and we’re just sitting here fat, dumb and happy.”
Opponents stood against the proposal for moral reasons, and some also doubted the benefits to state education.
“There is one word that describes the lottery, and that word is ‘greed,'” said Rep. Russell Capps, a Raleigh Republican.
“If we want to raise money for education, there are plenty of alternatives,” said Rep. Paul Miller, a Durham Democrat. “Let’s support the right way to fund education.”
If signed into law in its current form, the state would establish a lottery commission with a nine-member board, with an equal number of appointees made by the governor, the House Speaker, and the President Pro Tem of the Senate. The governor would appoint the initial chairman for one year, then the commission would choose the chairman after that. All meetings and records of the commission would be subject to the state’s public records laws.
The commission would determine the types of games played under the lottery, which could include instant lotteries and online games. The only advertising allowed would be at the location where lottery tickets are sold, and “shall be designed and presented in a manner to minimize the appeal of lottery games to minors.”
Opponents were skeptical that the limited advertising requirement would hold for long, given the competitiveness with neighboring states and the expressed need to raise revenue for the state. They said ultimately the lottery would prey upon poor people, leading to the temptation to spend irresponsibly and to gambling addictions.
“This is going to be devastating to some families,” said Rep. John Sauls, a Sanford Republican. “I think this is a sad day in North Carolina.”
John Rustin, director of government relations for the lottery-opposing North Carolina Family Policy Council, expected that the General Assembly would soon be pressured to remove the advertising limits.
“It’s completely unrealistic to expect that North Carolina can meet the revenue projections” given the ad restrictions, he said.
The vote on the floor of the House tabulated a 62-58 margin, but Democratic Rep. Pricey Harrison of Greensboro changed her vote. Black also set aside House rules and allowed a second voice vote after the first electronic vote. Rules normally require that the passage of revenue legislation undergo two separate votes on different days in each chamber of the General Assembly.
Paul Chesser is associate editor of Carolina Journal. Contact him at [email protected].