State lottery to be pushed again

Kirsten Searer

Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 | 11:10 a.m.

Democrats in the Legislature plan to propose a state lottery this session that would largely go to education.

The idea is one of several Democrats will unveil in coming days. Party leaders also are expected to announce they they will push to immediately increase the state minimum wage, Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus said Thursday.

This fall, voters overwhelmingly passed a measure to boost the minimum wage by $1 an hour, but it would not take effect until 2007 because it is a constitutional amendment and would have to go before voters again.

Titus said she thinks Democrats could change state law immediately.

The lottery would take more time because it would require an amendment to the state constitution.

Lawmakers have pushed the lottery in several previous legislative sessions, and polls have indicated that a state lottery has public support. Still, the gaming industry has fought against it, saying it would eat into casino profits.

Titus, D-Las Vegas, said she is convinced the gaming industry has softened to the idea.

Lottery revenues would be directed toward "very specific" programs, such as paying for textbooks, Titus said.

The plan to push a state lottery came as Democrats looked for major sources of education funding beyond raising taxes, said Sen. Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas.

"There is some interest, particularly knowing there is no more debate about taxes that's going to occur anytime soon," he said.

Horsford pointed out that educators tried to raise funding to the national average through an initiative petition this fall, but the measure failed.

"While there is not much interest to fund schools to the national average, there are still many indications that we need to increase funding for specific areas such as textbooks, teacher supplies, class sizes and to make some schools a little more manageable," he said.

Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, D-Las Vegas, has been one of the primary supporters of a state lottery in previous sessions. She and more than two dozen other Assembly members backed a bill in 2003 to allow the state to operate a lottery, but the bill died in a committee.

At that time Assemblyman Harry Mortenson, D-Las Vegas, was chairman of the constitutional amendments committee and said that Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, was convinced that a lottery wouldn't work.

But Perkins is one of the Democratic leaders who will be at today's press conference to support the idea, according to the state party's press release announcing the event.

Several ideas have been floated in previous years to try to win the gaming industry's support for a lottery, including a requirement that the tickets be sold in casinos.

Lesley Pittman, vice president of corporate and government relations for Station Casinos, said Thursday she thinks the industry remains opposed to a state lottery.

"There's a host of reasons," she said. "First and primarily, we just don't believe the state should be in the business of competing with our state's No. 1 industry."

The ban on a state lottery is actually written into the Nevada Constitution, she pointed out. Constitutional amendments must be passed by the Legislature twice and then go to voters for a final decision.

Pittman also said she thinks lottery revenue in Nevada wouldn't be as big as other states because people are already putting their money into other types of gaming.

"Given the wealth of other gaming opportunities that exist in this state, revenue won't be as pronounced as other jurisdictions," she said.

Cara Roberts, a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber is opposed to infusing any major amount of money into education without implementing assessments to determine how the money is working.

"You have to have a plan and you have to have a way to measure that plan," she said. "We don't believe just throwing money at the problem is going to solve it."

In their press conference today, Democrats will talk about which programs might benefit from a lottery and give rough estimates on how much a state lottery could generate, said spokesman Jon Summers.