In a blog post this Sunday on the Alabama House Democratic Caucus website, House Minority Leader Craig Ford of Gadsden, Alabama called for a new vote on implementing a state lottery in order to address budget issues. In his blog post Ford argued against Governor Bentley’s recent proposal to appropriate funds from education to fund tax breaks aimed at attracting out of state businesses to Alabama, a stance from which the Governor later distanced himself. Ford calls for a state lottery to increase revenue for education, arguing that:

A state lottery could generate as much as $250 million a year for the state’s school systems, according to a report provided by the Legislative Fiscal Office during last year’s legislative session… And $250 million could be a low estimate! If you consider that, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, individual states got to keep a total of $19.4 billion out of $68.8 billion in nationwide lottery sales in 2012.

Ford also argues that a lottery would not detract from current revenue streams, citing that:

We are already spending that money on the lottery. We are just playing it in different states…All we are doing is exporting our gamblers to other states and giving our money to these states to help pay for the betterment of their children’s education instead of our own children’s education.

In order for a new popular vote to take place, any gambling legislation would first have to pass both the State House and Senate. Alabamians last voted on a state lottery in 1999 in Governor Siegelman’s failed attempt to push gambling legislation. Alabama voters then voted 54 to 46 percent not to allow a lottery. It remains to be seen how much Alabamians’ minds have changed on the subject in the intervening years.

Let us know how you feel about the possibility of the lottery in Alabama.

By Joseph Mayes, Southern Torch Political Reporter