Lottery Bill Fails by Wide Margin

Click here to see who voted for and against the lottery bill

RALEIGH -- Despite months of backroom political wrangling, Democratic leaders' efforts were overturned Tuesday when a bill calling for a lottery referendum was overwhelmingly defeated in the N.C. House.

House members voted 69-50 -- with all but three of the chamber's Republicans teaming up with 14 Democrats -- to reject a bill calling for a nonbinding referendum on the Nov. 5 ballot that would have gauged voter support for an education lottery. Lawmakers had until today to pass the lottery bill to ensure that the referendum appeared on the ballot.

The vote came as a blow to Gov. Mike Easley's efforts to find more funding for education programs.

"It is unbelievable that the legislature would deny the people of this state the right to vote on a lottery," Easley stated Tuesday in a press release. "I hope that those members who voted against the bill will now offer an alternative solution since they have refused to offer any viable solution for the past two years."

House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, said he was disappointed with the vote because citizens should be given the right to indicate their opinion on a state lottery. "I still think the people of the state deserve the right to be heard (on this issue)," Black said. "I think it's a disservice to not allow the people to speak."

But Rep. Michael Decker, R-Forsyth, said the push to approve the lottery referendum had nothing to do with voters' freedom or even with the necessity of additional funding for education programs.

Democratic leaders have been criticized by House Republicans for attempting to put a lottery referendum on the Nov. 5 ballot to attract more Democratic-leaning citizens to the voting booths. "I think this bill and putting it on the ballot in November has everything to do with influencing the election and nothing to do with the lottery," Decker said.

Some legislators said the vote should not have been about ideology but about addressing the realities at hand in a state with a $2 billion budget shortfall.

Rep. David Redwine, D-New Hanover, said denying residents a chance to endorse an education lottery is equivalent to directly sending much-needed revenue to other states.

"Why in the world would we in North Carolina want to have a perverse kind of foreign aid," he asked. "On the moral issue, I agree it's probably not the right thing to do, but people have already chosen to do so."

Democratic leaders made a last-ditch effort to pass the lottery by today's deadline by including the lottery provision in the budget conference report filed Monday night. But the lottery was severed from the report Tuesday morning when House leadership determined the budget did not have enough support to pass with the provision.

"I made the decision this morning to send the conference report back to committee (to remove the lottery)," Black said. "I had discussions with a lot of people and made that decision."

The lottery referendum folded into the budget conference report came within two to three votes but never had enough support, said Rep. Verla Insko, D-Orange. "It was my impression that they never had the votes," she said.

Though lawmakers speculated that the lottery never had the necessary support, they said some representatives were more likely to allow the lottery provision's passage when it was tacked into the budget proposal.

"It lost favor when it was removed from the budget," said Rep. Edd Nye, D-Bladen. "It was going to lose anyway."

Although the lottery issue is dead for this session, some said it will continue to be a topic of debate in the future. "It will come up next year," Black said. "And the year after that and the year after that."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.