North Carolina weighs establishment of lottery

Scott Mooneyham

Friday, May 24, 2002 | 9:56 a.m.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The state House is expected to consider a lottery within the first two weeks of the upcoming legislative session, House Speaker Jim Black said Wednesday.

Black, D-Mecklenburg, said he is not sure whether the proposal taken up would simply put a lottery in place or include an advisory referendum to allow voters to tell lawmakers whether they want the game.

The Legislature convenes in Raleigh on Tuesday for its 2002 session.

"We need to know whether that money is going to be there. Like the governor said, if it's not the lottery, what it's going to be?" Black said.

Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare, didn't rule out including the lottery as a provision within the Senate budget.

"I'm going to poll my members. Whatever they vote to do, I will do," Basnight said of the Senate Democrats.

A proposed state budget sent Tuesday by Gov. Mike Easley to legislators included $250 million in lottery proceeds.

Easley said lawmakers, faced with the worst budget crisis in decades, will either have to approve a lottery, pass a tax increase or make additional cuts to education.

He has vowed to veto any budget that hurts classroom spending.

Black has long been a lottery opponent, but says it may no longer make sense to stand in the way of a vote.

He said the adoption of a lottery by South Carolina means North Carolina is losing more revenue to another neighbor. Virginia and Georgia both have lotteries; Tennessee does not.

"These are tough times, and they are going to require tough decisions," Black said. "I still don't like the state involved in the gambling business."

Lottery critics said legislative leaders will avoid tough decisions by approving the game, which they call a tax on the poor.

"The more the lottery is debated and examined, I think the fewer votes it has actually," said Chris Fitzsimon of the liberal Common Sense Foundation.

Fitzsimon said embracing a lottery, rather than endorsing a tax increase or searching for more budget cuts, shows "a lack of political courage."

Basnight, though, said few states that have adopted a lottery are looking to get rid of them.

"If it's so bad, if it's so awful, why is it people are so happy with it when they get it?" he asked.

Still, it remains unclear how much a lottery will help legislative budget writers for the next fiscal year.

Black admitted a lottery won't help balance the state's books unless the Legislature puts it in place without a referendum.

If they wait for the results of an advisory referendum in November, legislators would have to convene a special session to adopt a lottery. Under that scenario, there would be little time left in the fiscal year -- which begins July 1 -- to set up a lottery and begin collecting revenues.