Senators have hopes of victory for lottery

A lottery proposal will once again be brought before the N.C. General Assembly today as legislators convene for the 2005-06 session.

The bill — which Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank, plans to introduce — would allow N.C. counties to place a public opinion poll about the lottery on the 2006 ballot.

Counties that approve the lottery would receive 25 percent of its revenue for local schools. The other 75 percent would go to other statewide educational needs such as scholarships, Owens said.

He said this year’s lottery legislation will be similar to the one he proposed last year, which required 25 counties to approve the lottery for any to get it.

The education lottery has received support from Gov. Mike Easley both during his initial campaign and after his re-election.

And some believe the lottery will have a better chance this year than it has in the past.

“I think in the Senate it would have a strong chance of passing,” said Amy Fulk, spokeswoman for Sen. President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare.

North Carolina is locked in by states with education lotteries: South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and, most recently, Tennessee. Many proponents say North Carolina is suffering from people crossing state lines to play the game.

“When residents are already playing, wouldn’t it be better to keep the money here in our own state?” Fulk said.

Owens said many people who had been opponents of the lottery before have indicated to him that they plan to support it this time around.

But Sen. Richard Stevens, R-Wake, is not one of those legislators. “I just don’t think we need to fund government with gambling.”

The John Locke Foundation also opposes a lottery because it believes gambling shouldn’t be run by the government.

Roy Cordato, vice president for research, said the foundation is not against the legalization of gambling, but against the government running a gambling operation.

“We think people have the right to spend their money any way they please — even stupidly on gambling,” he said.

The foundation recognizes the proposal will be for a public opinion poll but is still against the bill because if the legislature places a public opinion poll on the ballot, they should do it consistently.

“For example, whenever they want to raise taxes, put it on the ballot as a public opinion poll,” Cordato said.

The survival of the lottery bill hinges on the debate over the budget and taxes. Because if the state does not fund education through a lottery, it has to be done in another way, said Ferrel Guillory, director of UNC’s Program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life.

“The governor keeps asking a very important question. And that is, ‘If not the lottery — what?’”

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.