(Video above: Gov. Robert Bentley makes his pitch to the people of Alabama to approve a lottery)
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has thrown in the towel on pushing for tax increases to fund the growth of the state’s Medicaid program, announcing Wednesday that he is instead calling a Special Session of the legislature for the specific task of approving a lottery to fund “essential services.”
“In order for our state to be the best that it can be, we must once and for all solve problems that have held our state back for decades,” said Gov. Bentley, alluding to Alabama’s perpetual General Fund Budget crisis. The state’s Medicaid program, which has almost doubled in size over the past decade, is the primary driver of the funding shortfall.
While speaking to doctors at Monroe County Hospital earlier this year, Gov. Bentley said he believes 70 percent of Alabamians would support a lottery proposal that is directly tied to funding Medicaid, a major source of revenue for rural hospitals.
“People think [rural doctors and hospitals] make a lot of money,” Gov. Bentley told reporters. “They don’t make a lot of money. And they serve because they’re called to serve and they love living in a rural area and they love taking care of people. But they have to make a living. And they have to pay their staff, and they have to pay their electric bill, and they have to pay all the things that everyone else has to pay to run a small business.”
Gov. Bentley asked the Legislature to include an additional $100 million appropriation for Medicaid this year, bringing the total request to $785 million. In 2007, Medicaid’s line in the General Fund Budget was only $400 million, and the program’s explosive growth is likely to continue in the years to come.
The legislature ultimately included $700 million in the budget for Medicaid, $85 million short of Gov. Bentley’s request, saying it would be difficult to go any higher than that without slashing other state services.
The State Medicaid Agency responded by reducing reimbursements to doctors back to 2013 levels, which was before ObamaCare implemented a “fee bump.”
“This is a difficult, but necessary cut due to the budget crisis the Medicaid Agency is facing at this time,” said Commissioner Stephanie Azar. The decision saved the state roughly $15 million.
Gov. Bentley believes the only tenable longterm solution is to approve a lottery that could bring in over $200 million annually.
Multiple lottery proposals were floated during this year’s Regular Legislative Session, but the pro-lottery bloc of lawmakers were divided on whether the money should go toward education or the General Fund.
Polling shows an “education lottery” would likely receive more support from the public, which will have to approve any lottery proposal at the ballot box in November, but it is the General Fund, not the Education Budget, that Gov. Bentley says is in need of cash.
Alabama is one of only six states that does not have a lottery, but a gambling expansion of any kind will face fierce opposition from the state’s large swath of evangelical voters.
Dr. Joe Godfrey, executive director of the Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP), an almost 80-year-old organization that describes itself as “Alabama’s moral compass,” earlier this year expressed concerns that “illegal gambling is taking over this state” and reiterated his group’s opposition to an expansion of any kind. Influential Christian conservative talk radio host Rick Burgess added that he believes the lottery is “a lazy plan” for politicians who cannot balance a budget.
“The states that do a lottery, you would think their streets would be paved with gold,” said Burgess. “You would think the teachers make all the money they’d ever want to make. You would think the children have the latest technology. You would think the children want for nothing. That’s not reality. Look at Mississippi. They were last in education… After they brought the casinos into the Gulf, they’re still last.”
The legislature would have to pass a lottery bill before August 24 for it to meet the deadline to be included on the statewide ballot in November.
In 1999, Alabamians voted down Gov. Don Siegelman’s proposed “education lottery” 54% to 46%. Since then, numerous statewide candidates — most of them Democrats — have run on a platform of letting the people vote again.
