Another lesson from education lottery by Chris Fitzsimon

Fitzsimon File
Another lesson from education lottery
by Chris Fitzsimon
On July 28, 2006, the day before the 2006 short session of the General Assembly adjourned, lawmakers passed House Bill 2212, which set up the Lottery Oversight Committee. Governor Mike Easley signed it two weeks later.
The law requires the panel to meet at least four times a year to review how lottery revenue is being spent, to make sure it is supporting education and not supplanting other education funding. The Governor, Senate President Pro Tem and Speaker of the House each appoint three members, all from the general public.
The law also requires the Committee to report its “analysis and any findings and recommendations” to the General Assembly every year by September 15th.
The legislation was passed at a time when Raleigh news was dominated by criminal trials and investigations surrounding the lottery’s passage in 2005. Former lottery lobbyist Kevin Geddings had already been indicted by federal authorities on 9 counts of fraud and was awaiting his October trial.
In early August, Meredith Norris, who was former House Speaker Jim Black’s Chief of Staff, pleaded no contest to state charges that she failed to register as a lobbyist for a lottery company when trying to influence legislation on its behalf.
Black himself was the subject of a federal investigation that would eventually send him to prison. Former Representative Michael Decker pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges just after the General Assembly adjourned at the end of July.
Corruption was in the air and most of it surrounded the lottery, or at least how the lottery passed a year earlier. That may not have been the only reason why so many lawmakers jumped at the chance to vote for the Lottery Oversight Committee, but it was one of them. Another one was to reassure skeptics who pointed out that it was impossible to promise that lottery revenues would not replace existing education funding.
Sixty members of the House sponsored the legislation and only two members of the House voted against its final approval. It passed the Senate without a dissenting vote. Several lawmakers talked about the Lottery Oversight Committee on the campaign trail that year, reassuring voters that it would provide accountability to the state’s gambling scheme.
Rep. Bill Owens said that “oversight is needed to keep the General Assembly in touch with something as big as the lottery.” One news account said “lawmakers will be able to keep a close watch on North Carolina’s newly adopted lottery,” thanks to the Committee.
Or maybe not. Almost two years after lawmakers hailed the creation of the oversight committee, it has yet to meet and has made no report to the General Assembly. Both failures appear to be a violation of the law.
Easley, Basnight, and Black made their appointments, and General Assembly staff has been assigned to work with the committee. All we need now is an actual meeting to see some of that oversight that Owens proclaimed was so important. Or at least a call for a meeting from Easley or Basnight or Owens.
Meanhile the lottery steams ahead, now beginning its third year of exploiting the public. Overall, revenues have been lower than expected and lottery officials are constantly coming up with new games and drawings and commercials to convince people to spend their money on lottery tickets because politicians can’t raise money honestly for public investments.
Local school officials continue to complain that the perception that the lottery is paying for schools makes it harder to convince voters to support bonds for school construction. And nobody knows if lottery money spent on reducing class size is simply replacing money that would have been allocated anyway.
Nobody’s really trying to find out either. Certainly not the much-ballyhooed Lottery Oversight Committee that has never met. But all is not lost. Once again, the lottery is teaching us about promises from some politicians, and the difference between soundbites and reality, and that some laws don’t really matter. Mark it down as yet another lesson from the Education Lottery