By Senator Shay Shelnutt
In Alabama, many politicians have recently used Medicaid’s $85 million budget shortfall to argue for increased taxes, a lottery, the expansion of gambling, or some combination of the three. Indeed, after proposing a half billion-dollar tax increase last year, a few weeks ago Governor Robert Bentley called a special session of the Legislature to consider a lottery for the purposes of funding Medicaid.
Shay Shelnutt
file photo by Ron Burkett
Last week, the Legislature gave serious and extensive consideration to the Governor’s lottery, but ultimately rejected the proposal. I voted against the Bentley lottery, and since this is a debate that provokes heated discussion throughout our state, I want to briefly explain why I opposed the Governor’s plan.
First, the Governor’s legislation was a constitutional amendment to legalize a lottery, but it included no enabling legislation detailing how the lottery would be run. Had the Legislature approved the constitutional amendment for the November ballot, the Governor and the Legislature would have been saying, “Trust us.” But if the people are going to vote on a lottery, they deserve to have full disclosure beforehand of what it will include.
Further, while the Governor pitched the lottery as a solution to Medicaid’s current $85 million shortfall, it would be 2018 before the state received any money from the lottery. Medicaid does face a serious fiscal challenge, but a lottery will not solve the program’s immediate or long-term needs.
I have heard many people argue a lottery is needed to provide more money for K-12 schools and college scholarships. Whatever the merits of that argument, the Governor’s plan would have done the opposite, putting over ninety percent of the proceeds to the General Fund for Medicaid.
What Alabama’s state government desperately needs is a fiscal plan to un-earmark our state’s budgets. More than ninety percent of Alabama’s tax dollars are set in stone for specific programs, giving legislators virtually no flexibility in times of budget crisis.
Our state has the highest percentage of budget earmarks in the nation and unless we reform our archaic budgeting system, we will continue to drift from crisis to crisis. A lottery –and the additional stream of revenue to state government’s coffers- would have incentivized not reform, but the status quo.
One final “programming” note: the special session will continue next week, as the Legislature considers differing plans to allocate the $1 billion BP settlement for economic damages to the state. I strongly support using the money to first pay off existing state debt, totaling more than $500 million, to the Alabama Trust Fund. I am open to considering a variety of uses for the remaining money, but first, debt must be retired and the state’s emergency fund fully restored.
Shay Shelnutt represents District 17 in the Alabama Senate, which is comprised of all or parts of Blount, Jefferson, St. Clair, and Talladega counties. You can contact him at shay.sd17@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter: @shelnutt417.
13 Comments
Cole Stephens
Welcome to the bible belt
Cole Stephens
Welcome to the bible belt
Jeremy Purvis
Bible Belt Sucks
Jeremy Purvis
Bible Belt Sucks
Joe Cochran
It’s not a Bible Belt thing really
I’m sure Shay and the others would support an appropriately thought out and presented plan to allow Alabama to vote on
I would support a lottery if it is done correctly.
When Florida put theirs in place no one new that although it was set up for education, once in place the money’s in education were diverted once the new money came in.
A shell game to be sure, and know I do not trust our government to pass something today and say you’ll know what’s in it once we pass it.
Joe Cochran
It’s not a Bible Belt thing really
I’m sure Shay and the others would support an appropriately thought out and presented plan to allow Alabama to vote on
I would support a lottery if it is done correctly.
When Florida put theirs in place no one new that although it was set up for education, once in place the money’s in education were diverted once the new money came in.
A shell game to be sure, and know I do not trust our government to pass something today and say you’ll know what’s in it once we pass it.
Darryl Glass
Thanks for your detailed and fiscally sound explanation Senator Shelnutt. Hurriedly passing a poorly written constitutional amendment, without detailing where the funds are to be spent, is bad business. Elected officials owe it to citizens to craft a fiscally sound and detailed plan if we are to be informed voters. No more, “We have to pass the bill so you can then see what is in it”.
Sondra Martin
Thanks, Shay! I’m all for a lottery, but I want one that has been thoroughly planned out, then executed well, not one that has been slapped together and run through for a vote that will most likely fail.
Nick Smith
The way my public speech teacher explained this to me was. “They woulnt raise taxes because there republicans, and that could hurt there standing. They woulnt put in a lottery or gambling because it’s the Bible Belt and that will lead to hellfire and brimstone.” I think he was dead on.
Kay Hicks
I honestly don’t believe I will ever see the Senate and the House pass a lotto bill where the people can vote on it. Just the lotto not casino’s. We need so much done in this State .
Scott Buttram
Those are the comments you get when people don’t bother to read the story they’re commenting on. I still hear people blame Siggelman’s failed lottery bill on the Bible Belt because they have no idea that it failed because it was rigged for Siegelman’s cronies.
Terri Martin Vosbury
Would someone explain why we have wasted more money in the State and had a Special Session and nothing was accomplished again! Shouldn’t the expense be on the backs of the elected officials who did nothing!!!!
Bama MC
We will never have a lottery ! It probably would have passed if had been on the November ballot, and those against it knew that !