Black edges lottery vote toward floor

Prospects for a state lottery moved forward Thursday as the leader of the state House called for the formation of a legislative panel designed to put a bill on the chamber’s floor.

Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, said that though he has reservations about lotteries, he doesn’t want North Carolina to keep losing money to its border states, all of which have a lottery.

He also added that the funding from a lottery bill would go toward education. But detractors say they fear that the revenue would replace, not supplement, existing education funding — a situation many other states have faced as lawmakers try to fill huge budget deficits.

Black wants the committee to draft a lottery bill and put it to a vote within two weeks. He’ll announce its members tonight.

“Once and for all, we’re going to have a straight up-or-down vote on the lottery,” he said Thursday.

Black added that he does not completely favor a lottery. But North Carolina loses $300 million per year to other lotteries, he said, and the state could use those funds.

“Some people say the lottery is a sin,” he said. “I think a bigger sin is not educating your children and giving them a chance at the good life.”

Black said the committee will finish its work in about 10 days. “Put in a bill, put it out there, vote it up or down, and let’s get on with our lives,” he said.

Though he will not set any strict limits for the committee, Black said, he will try to curb the amount of advertising the bill allows.

J.B. Buxton, Gov. Mike Easley’s senior education adviser, said the administration is encouraged by the announcement. Easley has advocated a lottery since 2001.

It is still not clear how much support the bill will have in the House, which has never approved a lottery.

Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange, does not favor a lottery. She pointed out that a state lottery would not create N.C. jobs because companies that run lotteries are located outside the states that implement them.

She also said that the state shouldn’t advertise a potentially addictive activity and that there is too great a temptation for governments to use the money to supplant — rather than supplement — existing education funds.

But she also said she thinks high public support will send the bill through.

Elaine Mejia, director of the N.C. Budget and Tax Center, said the lottery is a regressive tax and an unreliable revenue source.

Mejia, who recently authored a study focusing on education and the lottery, said other states with lotteries have found that public support for education funding has dropped, mostly because people believe lotteries provide a sufficient amount of money.

“Even the fact that they’re talking about it with respect to the budget is evidence that they’re planning to supplant education,” Mejia said.

David Mills, executive director of the Common Sense Foundation, echoed Mejia’s statements but said that figures on how much the state is losing from other lotteries are misleading. Part of the money, he said, would go toward overhead costs.

Though the state is losing money, he said, that’s to be expected under the government’s good stewardship.

But Buxton said the funds would go not just to education, but toward specific goals and programs such as reducing class size and the More at Four early education program.

Black added that funding also could go to school construction and scholarships and that plans to lower existing education spending are not in the picture.

“I do not want to decrease the amount we’re spending on education,” he said. “I want to capture that $300 million we’re spending on education in other states.”

Still, Black said he’s unsure whether a majority of the 120 House members will support the bill.

“I think all of the members in the House on both sides of the aisle want to improve education,” Black said. “It’s just a matter of, you know, whether we can get 61 votes to move forward.”

Assistant State & National Editor Eric Johnson contributed to this article.

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