Bentley releases proposed Alabama lottery amendment
Gov. Robert Bentley Friday unveiled a constitutional amendment that would allow voters in November to decide whether Alabama should have a state lottery.
The amendment reflects comments made by Bentley about the lottery earlier this week. It would provide a seven-member lottery commission – appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate – to oversee what would be called the Alabama Lottery. All proceeds from the lottery would go to the General Fund budget, which for years has grappled with rising expenses and flat revenues.
"It is a simple lottery," Bentley said Friday morning after touring Crowne Health Care of Montgomery, a nursing home on Upper Wetumpka Road. "It will allow the people of Alabama to vote on it. It does not include casino gambling. It has a commission that will oversee it in the constitutional amendment."
Bentley says the amendment will not authorize casino gambling. The proposal says "nothing in this amendment affects, prohibits or limits" any legal gaming in the state, including betting on horse and dog racing and "nonprofit, traditional bingo." State officials have feuded with casino owners in the state who have employed electronic bingo, which resembles a slot machine but is not considered casino-type gambling under the law. But last year the Bentley administration and Attorney General Luther Strange signaled they would leave enforcement of bingo laws up to local law enforcement.
If adopted, the amendment would put the phrase "traditional bingo" in the state Constitution for the first time. The phrase is not defined in Alabama law, but the Alabama Supreme Court in 2009 defined "the traditional game of bingo" as having six elements, including the use of cards to mark numbers; the requirement that players mark their cards and the ability to tell other players they have won. The criteria, known as the Cornerstone test, was used by the state to challenge electronic bingo in different areas.
Bentley said the Supreme Court had "already ruled" electronic bingo out.
"We put that language in there to go along really with what the state Supreme Court has ruled," he said. "It was just to follow their language."
The Legislature will consider the amendment in this month's special session, set to begin Aug. 15. Legislators would have to pass the amendment by Aug. 24 to get it on the November ballot, where voters would decide whether or not to approve it.
Under the amendment, the Legislature would work out enabling legislation in a later session.
The General Fund's woes are playing havoc with Alabama Medicaid, which covers 1 million Alabamians. Legislators last spring approved $700 million in state funds for the program, less than the $785 million Medicaid officials said they needed to maintain the program and allow the implementation of regional care organizations (RCOs), a managed care program for Medicaid recipients aimed at slow cost growth in the program. Last month, Medicaid commissioner Stephanie Azar announced cutbacks to physician reimbursements in the program. That could lead to layoffs and limit access to care for both Medicaid recipients and the privately insured; hospitals and pediatric practices both depend on Medicaid to keep their doors open.
Bentley said Wednesday he wants to restore the physician reimbursements as soon as he can.
Even if passed, the lottery will not help Medicaid in its current crisis; the state would be unlikely to see revenues before 2018. Lotteries also tend to post flat growth year to year, and a lottery may not be the final answer for the General Fund woes.
Bentley has suggested his call for a special session would allow legislators to consider a BP settlement that could free up to $70 million for Medicaid. But a similar proposal fell apart last spring in a fight over road money, and state officials have not said if any resolution is at hand. The governor said Friday he was not certain about the prospects of that legislation.
Democrats for years have pushed for a lottery to fund education, either in the form of college scholarships or K-12 support through the Education Trust Fund. House Minority Leader Craig Ford, D-Gadsden, who has prefiled a bill to allow lottery and casino gaming, said he was "disappointed" in the governor's proposal.
"We don’t think it will pass a vote of the people without a educational component," he said.
Sen. Dick Brewbaker, R-Montgomery, an opponent of gambling, said he considered a lottery "an unlimited albeit voluntary tax on the bottom 20 percent of wage earners." Brewbaker also suggested that if the problems in Medicaid were as great as Bentley said, he should begin speak with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, who run casinos in Atmore, Montgomery and Wetumpka.
"It seems to me we could negotiate a compact with the Indians and get $100 million in six weeks," he said. "If crisis is really as immediate as the governor says it is, I’m surprised the governor’s not talking to the Poarch Band of Creek Indians."