Anti-gambling forces rally against N. Carolina lottery

Gary D. Robertson

Wednesday, May 9, 2001 | 10:28 a.m.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Both sides gained footing Tuesday in the lottery referendum battle, with anti-gambling forces rallying at the Legislature and the top teachers' group endorsing Gov. Mike Easley's lottery plan.

The North Carolina Association of Educators announced support for a referendum vote on a lottery in which game proceeds would go toward reducing class sizes and early childhood programs -- just like Easley's.

Meanwhile, nearly 400 people lobbied lawmakers to vote against any referendum measure, saying the lottery is a jagged source of education funding and teaches the wrong values to young Tar Heel citizens.

"The lottery is a regressive tax that preys on our most vulnerable people," former Raleigh News & Observer Publisher Frank Daniels Jr. said at the rally. He said the gambling industry is using education to tidy up the lottery's liabilities.

"It's a lot like putting a tutu on a hog and calling it a ballerina," he said.

But NCAE's endorsement gives Easley support from a key constituency and put the state's anti-lottery groups on the defensive. Pro-lottery forces also put out a poll last week showing 60 percent of those surveyed want an education lottery.

"NCAE recognizes that a state lottery offers an alternative source for much-needed revenues to fund new education priorities," association president Joyce Elliott said in a news release.

Easley's budget proposal includes a lottery that generates $300 million in the 2002-2003 fiscal year for the lower class size and a "More at Four" initiative for at-risk 4-year-olds.

NCAE government relations director Jack Polidari said the group was only trying to get behind the revenue option for Easley's programs that has the best chance for passage this year. NCAE earlier had said it would push this year for a lottery to pay for one-time education expenditures.

"At present, the lottery is the major revenue source that's being discussed," Polidari said.

Chuck Neely, head of Citizens United Against the Lottery, said studies show that states likely will spend less of its total budget on education after a lottery is created.

"I am not surprised that the gambling industry is hiding behind the people of North Carolina and its teachers," Neely said after the rally.

Rally participants wore yellow stickers reading "Kids Yes, Lotto No" and cheered speakers while grade-school students entered the state Museum of Natural Sciences nearby.

"You see these children standing here, this is what this battle is about. It's a battle for the future of this state," Neely said.

Other speakers included UNC-Chapel Hill women's basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell, UNC president emeritus Bill Friday and former St. Augustine's College president Prezell Robinson.

"I'm trying to teach my players good character. I feel like that endorsing a lottery is not the kind of character that we want to teach our players," Hatchell said.

Lottery supporters say games in surrounding states are siphoning money from Tar Heel residents who go play them. North Carolinians spend about $100 million annually playing the Virginia lottery. South Carolina lawmakers are also working on details for a new lottery.

The Rev. Burrel Brooks of St. John's Baptist Church in Statesville said North Carolina shouldn't worry about the other states.

"I hear so much, 'We need to do like Virginia. We need to be like Georgia," he said. "Let's be different. Say no to the lottery. ... The lottery is not a cure. It's a curse."

Four lottery measures have been filed this legislative session. Two of them would create a game in which net proceeds would go to Easley's initiatives

A vote on a lottery bill is too close to call. A vote isn't likely unless pro-lottery forces know they have the votes in the House to pass the legislation, lawmakers say.

Veterinarian John Canipe and his wife brought their eight children from Asheboro to attend the rally day after learning about the event at their Baptist church.

"We need to let them know the will of the people. I'm one of those people," Canipe said.

Citizens United Against the Lottery are organizing chapters in several cities. The group also is making automated phone calls to lottery opponents asking them to contact 17 lawmakers that could make the difference in the legislative vote.

Rep. Frank Mitchell, one of the 17 lawmakers targeted, said the two anti-lottery constituents that came to his office Tuesday won't change his mind: he supports letting the voters decide on a lottery.

"I get far more comments about getting a lottery than I do against it," he said.