Local Officials Maintain Opposition to Lottery

The Carolina Poll, an annual telephone survey sponsored by the University's School of Journalism and Mass Communication, recently asked the opinion of 567 adults in the Triangle.

The results indicate that 70 percent of respondents are supportive of a lottery if revenue is used for education.

But Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy said he opposes the lottery because it will not alleviate the budget problems of the N.C. education system.

"I think the lottery is a scam," he said. "I don't think it raises the money that it promises -- it's just a way of generating profits for the gaming industry."

Mark Kleinschmidt, a Chapel Hill Town Council member, said he thinks people are supportive of a lottery because they have not heard the argument against it.

"I think the pro-lottery lobby has done a great job of keeping information from the people," he said.

Kleinschmidt also said a lottery will disproportionately affect people on low or fixed incomes who have less money to spend on gambling.

The idea also is unpopular among Triangle representatives in the N.C. legislature. Sen. Ellie Kinnaird and Rep. Joe Hackney, both D-Orange, have stated their opposition to a state-sponsored lottery.

"It appears to be one of those situations where the public officials don't really respond to what the public tells them," said UNC journalism Professor Bob Stevenson, the director of the Carolina Poll.

Hackney said he doesn't have a problem going against an opinion poll because he believes public opinion will be more evenly divided once a debate in the legislature begins.

"I think (a lottery) would be a negative thing, all in all," he said. "Basically I just don't think the government should be in the gambling business."

Local representatives also argue that funds from the lottery would not really add to the total education budget.

"As education becomes dependent on the lottery, it will turn other money away," Kleinschmidt said. "And lotteries don't have sustainability without millions of dollars in advertising."

But officials with Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools are more hopeful about the possibilities of a lottery funding education, although they believe the result will not be a cure-all.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education member Elizabeth Carter supports the lottery unless it adversely affects the poor.

"Some states say they go in with (the intent to fund education), but they don't get as much out of it as they thought they would," she said. "But we need something to help boost the economy. It wouldn't hurt to try it on for size."

David Kolbinsky, an Orange County school board member, said there are worries that the lottery money will not be dependable but that he thinks some school board members will take what they can get.

"Some folks on the board seem to relish funding sources wherever they're from," he said. "But I do think they would all say that education ... shouldn't be based on something as capricious as the funding from a lottery."

A major argument now used to support the state's involvement in a lottery is the fact that both South Carolina and Virginia now have lotteries, said Chapel Hill Town Council member Jim Ward.

A lottery is seen as a "way to stem the bleeding into other states," he said.

Hackney thinks the lottery will probably pass the N.C. legislature this summer because of the perception that North Carolina is losing money to its neighboring states.

"I think the argument is not a valid one, but in the end, I fear, it will carry the day."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.