State lottery bill headed to Senate

Kirsten Searer

Tuesday, March 8, 2005 | 10:56 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- All but nine members of the state Assembly said yes Monday to a state lottery, which has been banned in Nevada since the state constitution was written in 1864.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, is a co-sponsor.

Democrats argued Monday that a new lottery could bring in between $40 million and $70 million a year that would add -- not supplant -- funds for textbooks, class size reduction and other classroom supplies.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said the Legislature would vote twice for the bill because it would amend the constitution. It would go for a vote in the 2008 election, and the soonest a lottery could be in place would be 2009.

"Let the voters decide," Perkins said, adding that studies in Las Vegas have indicated as many as one in three people in Clark County play the lottery, even if they travel to the Arizona or California border.

The bill ultimately passed, 33-9, with two Democrats and seven Republicans objecting.

Several lawmakers said they had philosophical problems with adding gaming in the state, even a state saturated with places to gamble.

"The lottery is another form of gambling and our state doesn't need another form," said Assistant Minority Leader Garn Mabey, R-Las Vegas, who said he worried the lottery would be a burden on poor people.

Mabey said he would vote to increase funding for textbooks if it came before him, but a lottery is an easy way out.

"Some say a meal tastes better if someone else is buying," he said. "Today, I'd rather buy my own."

Assemblyman Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, a Mormon bishop who sits on the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, said he would vote to boost funds for textbooks, but wasn't willing to do it through a lottery.

"For religious reasons, I oppose the creation of that," he said.

Assemblyman Bob McCleary, D-North Las Vegas, another Democrat who said he has "philosophical" problems with a lottery, also voted against the measure.

Republican Assembly members Sharron Angle of Reno, Chad Christensen of Las Vegas, Joe Hardy of Boulder City, Lynn Hettrick of Gardnerville, Rod Sherer of Pahrump and Valerie Weber of Las Vegas also voted against the measure.

Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, expressed frustration Monday that legislators opposed to the lottery haven't come up with their own solution to fund textbooks.

"You can't say, 'I'm for education, I'm for books, I'm for teacher pay, I'm for all this' and then when a proposal comes up you vote no," he said. "Is there another proposal to help supplement getting textbooks and supplies in our schools right now? I haven't seen one. No one has come to me and said, 'Instead of having a lottery, I've proposed a bill that would put more money in our classrooms.' "

Angle said, however, that she hopes to use interest off certain accounts funded through the state general fund for classroom supply money. She said she has a bill draft that would devote the interest money to textbooks and other supplies, and she hopes it will make it through the legal division soon so she can introduce it.

"There is plenty of money out there if we really want to do the right thing," Angle said.