North Carolina House Passes Lottery Bill
Senate up next
North Carolina is the only state on the east coast without a lottery. Our state house of representatives recently passed a lottery bill 61-59 and it is now up to the state senate.
To this effort, I wrote some email detailing my concerns to both the represenatives and the senators for Wake County, and in the comments that follow, I will post their responses. The letter was basically the same to each senator, and the letters to the representatives were similar, except for obvious changes since they already voted on the bill.
Dear Senator Hunt,
As a state senator representing my county, and and the people of this great state of North Carolina, I hope you will be voting FOR the lottery bill that the house passed yesterday. While I agree that a lottery is not a perfect solution, it's one step to be taken to enhance education revenue. I think having over 2/3 of the non-winnings going toward education can and will be a boon for our state educational system, especially if the legislators are RESPONSIBLE with the money and don't try to use loopholes.
The fact that other states use those loopholes to funnel money elsewhere should NOT affect the passage of a lottery bill, because I'd like to think that the legislators I elect can be trusted.
Besides, I think the vast majority of the voters you represent WANT a lottery, and the primary duty of the legislature is to represent the peoples views, and not to protect us from ourselves. If I want to buy $5 worth of lottery tickets every week, that should be my right, and it's not up to the legislature to protect me from a gambling addiction.
With regards to the Western Wake Freeway (I-540 from RTP to Holly Springs), I hope that you will do everything in your power to get this project funded. Apex, Holly Springs, and Fuquay-Varina are all growing very rapidly, and even a widened highway 55 is not going to carry the traffic happily. This part of I-540 is absolutely necessary for the continued growth of our region, and will make it much easier to commute from these regions to RTP and Durham.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Rick Root
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From: Senator Neal Hunt
Date: 4/8/2005 9:08 PM
Rick, I respectfully must disagree with you on your position favoring the lottery. I oppose it primarily because I don't think our government needs to be promoting gambling. There are numerous negative ramifications associated with gambling, including encouraging an attitude of laziness and sloth. I.e. "why work, I might win the lottery" or "I'll just spend a few dollars on the lottery instead of saving money to pay my rent or buy food for the family." These attitudes are destructive to our society.
Further, only about one third of the money raised actually is available to fund education. So in addition to the damage done to our society, this is a very inefficient way to generate government revenues.
The remaining two thirds of the money goes for overhead and promotion. The promotion of gambling is as destructive as gambling itself. We don't need to be teaching our young people that gambling is a legitimate way to make money.
On a positive note, I will do whatever I can to restore funding for the Western Wake Freeway and the other projects the Triangle is losing because of a distorted formula for determining funding.
Although we disagree on the lottery issue, I appreciate hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Neal Hunt
From: Sen. Richard Stevens
Date: 4/8/2005 9:08 PM
Thank you for your email. Your input in the legislative process and public policy debate is important to the process and sincerely appreciated.
Richard Y. Stevens
Senator
NC General Assembly
(919)733-5653
From: Sen. Nelson Dollar
Date: 4/18/2005 3:29 PM
Dear Mr. Root,
We agree on the need to push forward on I-540 and have differing views on the lottery. As you know, a lottery bill did pass the House, unfortunately, in it's current form it will do little to help education. Several of us wanted to amend the bill, but we were allowed no amendments on the Floor. My hope is some of the problems with the bill will be fixed in the Senate.
You talked about wanting to trust the legislators you elect, I hope I will be worthy of your trust over time. Nevertheless, it was recently revealed that several top legislative leaders had special funds (over $50 million) in the budgets of the Depts. of Cultural Resources and Transportation that were used to reward political friends and supports. If we have a lottery we will need to have safeguards against these types of activities.
Thank you for your E-mail on both of these important issues.
Best Regards,
Nelson Dollar
Representative Nelson Dollar
Legislative Building Suite 1421
715-0795
When the new elementary school opened down the street from us a few years ago, on the very first day it opened, it had 10 portable trailers for additional classrooms.
Every penny that adds to school construction is a worthwhile thing if you ask me.