Bill stalls on partisan vote, with most Democrats voting against it
Alabama lawmakers Tuesday rejected a plan to allow voters to decide whether to establish a state lottery, a question that was last on the ballot 20 years ago.
Rep. Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, who is handling the bill in the House of Representatives, initially said it could be reconsidered Tuesday night or Wednesday. Clouse later said the bill was not coming up again Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
The bill fell one vote shy of the three-fifths margin required on a procedural vote in the House. The vote was 53-36 with one abstention. Most of the Republicans voted yes, while most Democrats voted no.
Legislators had said they expected a close vote today.
The bill would direct 75 percent of net lottery revenue to the state General Fund and 25 percent to the Education Trust Fund. Disagreement over that formula was part of today's debate.
Rep. Louise Alexander, D-Birmingham, was one of the first up to talk about the bill. Alexander said she would propose an amendment to split the revenues equally between the General Fund and Education Trust Fund.
Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, spoke after Alexander and said she also supported sending more of the money to education.
After that, the House voted on the procedural motion called the budget isolation resolution, which is required on every bill before the state budgets pass. Approval requires a three-fifths margin, which the bill did not receive.
House rules allow reconsideration of the budget isolation resolution, called the BIR, one time.
When the House recessed for dinner tonight, Clouse said he was working to round up the votes to bring the bill back up. He said that could happen tonight or Wednesday. He later said it would not come up tonight, according to the Associated Press.
Rep. Steve Clouse says no lottery vote tonight in Alabama House.
— Kim Chandler (@StatehouseKim) May 22, 2019
Clouse said he believes the House would approve the BIR if it votes on it again. But passing the bill is harder, requiring three-fifths of the House membership, or 63 votes.
"The question is, as we move forward with different amendments and different arguments, do we have enough votes to get to 63," Clouse said. "We've got to have 63 yes votes. I just don't know if we've got that yet or not."
Fifty Republicans voted in favor of the budget isolation resolution, while three Democrats voted for it. Twenty-one Democrats and 15 Republicans voted against it.
Clouse said an amendment to direct more of the lottery revenue to education is probably necessary to attract the votes needed to pass, even though he said the General Fund has the greatest need.
"I realize that for the general public, though, they that think more needs to go to education and the General Fund is just some kind of black hole," Clouse said. "But when you start identifying all the areas of the General Fund, from Medicaid, to prisons, to mental health, to DHR, state troopers, at the point people begin to realize how important it is for public safety."
Rep Steve Clouse says General Fund has greatest need for lottery dollars even though public support is stronger for education. #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/vdEC4z2dSK
— Mike Cason (@MikeCasonAL) May 21, 2019
If the bill makes it through the Legislature, the question of whether to allow a lottery would go on the ballot for voters during the presidential primary in March.
Alabama voters last had their say on a lottery in 1999, when voters rejected the plan by Gov. Don Siegelman.
In 2016, Gov. Robert Bentley proposed a lottery plan to support the General Fund, but it did not pass the Legislature.
Clouse- follow Alexander’s lead, split it down the middle & when this vote clears & the people give it a
, revisit the situation a year or two down the road. Just get it done! Who sang “ It’s now or never?” In other words-Step up!
The dirty secret of state lotteries is that regardless of what the funds are earmarked for, the general fund gets the money in the end. (I don't want to spam this thread with links, but there are numerous studies and articles about this phenomenon.) For instance, in states where lottery profits are dedicated to education, the state simply reduces other sources of funding for the education department, which eventually leads to less money flowing out of the general fund. The exact chain of financial trade-offs varies from state to state and can be convoluted, but that's basically the outcome. AL can earmark it all for education to please the voters if they really want the lottery.
I read some editorials on AL new sites that claim whenever the creation of a lottery comes up, AL politicians with religious objections to the lottery always try to earmark the most of the profits for the general fund because they know that distribution will fail with the voters.
Don't know why anyone thought the same group of legislators that just passed into law a bill even the Governor said was unconstitutional while signing it would vote for a state lottery.
Not allowing the people to vote up or down should tell them exactly how their elected legislators feel about them. But will they remember that at election time?