Gov. Robert Bentley today formally called a special session of the Alabama Legislature to lay the groundwork for a state-run lottery. Members of the House began the session Monday afternoon in Montgomery by electing a new speaker, Rep. Mac McCutcheon.
Someone who has been present in Montgomery since 1998 will be absent in this year's special session. Former Speaker Mike Hubbard won't be leading the House from the speaker's chair for the first time since he assumed the highest position for his first special session in December 2010 nearly six years ago.
Before the Legislature can discuss a lottery, the House had to elect a speaker to replace Hubbard. The House Republican caucus, which holds a super majority with 70 of 103 seats, met more than two weeks ago and chose McCutcheon, a Republican from Monrovia, as their nominee for speaker.
The nomination in itself almost assured McCutcheon would clench the title, but Monday the entire House confirmed him as their speaker. According to reports, 68 members of the House voted for McCutcheon.
"I am not my predecessor," McCutcheon said during his first speech as speaker of the House. "The days of the imperial speakership are over. I will work every day, every hour, every minute and every second to be the people's speaker."
McCutcheon will now lead the House through the special session called by the governor. With his election, he will assume the vacated speaker's seat following the conviction of the former speaker, Auburn Republican Mike Hubbard.
Hubbard, who owns Auburn Network Inc. and several other businesses in Auburn, was convicted of 12 felony ethics charges by a Lee County jury in June. He was later sentenced to four years in prison in July.
The governor's call includes two main orders of business: the passage of an amendment allowing for the state-run lottery and legislation to provide funding for the state's ailing medicaid system, infrastructure investment and debt repayment.
“This call is designed for the Alabama Legislature to address adequate support of essential state services including children, the elderly, people with mental illness and support for men and women in law enforcement,” Bentley said. “A primary focus of this special session is for legislators to allow the people within their district the right to vote on a statewide lottery. I am looking forward to working with lawmakers over the next few days as we address legislation that is simple, clean and transparent.”
This year, the Legislature appropriated the state's Medicaid agency about $85 million less than what Bentley said the organization needed. Bentley has warned that the shortfall may affect the agency's ability to provide healthcare coverage to hundreds of thousands of low-income enrollees.
"The time has come for us to find a permanent solution," Bentley said last month in a video released explaining the lottery. "This solution will provide funding that we can count on, year after year, without ever having to raise your taxes or put one more band-aid on our state's money problems. We must have a solution."
For years the Alabama Legislature has refused to raise taxes, citing a lack of public support. With an increase in expenditures and stagnant revenue, the current shortfall follows one of nearly $200 million last year, which was resolved with an $80 raid of the Education Trust Fund and an increase in several sin taxes.
A state-run lottery — a topic Alabamians have argued over for more than a decade — will be the focal point of the remainder of the session. Bentley's plan will need super-majority support to pass both houses, and the Legislature will only have until Aug. 24 to make a decision for the lottery to appear on November's general election ballot for a public referendum.
Bentley wants the lottery to help solve the increasingly common shortfalls in the state's budget by providing a revenue supplement to the state's General Fund, which funds the state's prisons, Medicaid and other essential services.
Surrounding states, including Florida and Georgia, use their state-run lotteries solely to benefit education. None of Bentley's lottery money would benefit the state's Education Trust Fund directly.
"Despite what Gov. Bentley says, a lottery is not a permanent solution," said State Auditor Jim Zeigler. "If the cost increases in Medicaid continue on their current pace, then by the time the state realizes any revenue from the lottery, it will already be spent and more needed."
If they quickly pass the needed legislation by the Aug. 24 deadline, the lottery still won't provide the needed funding to solve the $85-million shortfall in the budget approved by the Legislature this year for the 2017 fiscal year.
"Passing a lottery during this special session will not have any impact on the current, approximately $85 million Medicaid shortfall in next year's budget," Zeigler said. "The administration will still have to find ways to cut Medicaid expenses or find money for next year's shortfall in time for the October 1 start of the fiscal year."
State Sen. Tom Whatley, R-Auburn, said he was hopeful the citizens of Alabama could eventually vote on a state-run lottery.
"I think the people of Alabama deserve an opportunity to vote," Whatley told The Plainsman.
But he wasn't particularly hopeful a plan could be put together in time to go on the ballot in November.
"The governor here has brought us to special session and is trying to get us to solve an issue in about nine days that people have been talking about for 19 years. Three weeks ago he determined there is a tremendous emergency. ... So far the special session hasn't delineated out into a real plan up until [Monday], nor has he laid our where he wants the money to go or where he wants it to be spent."
Whatley said he couldn't see himself voting for a piece of thrown-together legislation, and he was concerned about the make-up of the gaming commission, which would run the lottery. Two other concerns — what power the commission would have in determining the final home of any new revenue and whether or not they could expand the definition of gaming to fantasy sports and "church bingo" — also topped Whatley's concerns.
"These are all question that have to be answered, have to be ironed out into a bill, and to ask us to do that in eight or nine days may be asking for a little bit more than can be accomplished, especially with the House having to elect a new speaker," Whatley said. "I'm not sure how they're going to be able to maneuver through their issues."
The House and Senate will also discuss how to spend new money acquired from a settlement with oil giant BP as a result of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill along the coast. In total, the state's general fund will receive more than $850 million in new revenue from the settlement over 17 years.
"I hope that we can address the BP money issue in this time frame," Whatley said.
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