MONTGOMERY — State Sen. Del Marsh’s (R-Anniston) comprehensive gaming proposal appears to be dead after a Senate vote on Tuesday afternoon, however chatter around a lottery has only increased in the subsequent hours.
A clean lottery bill fell 10 votes short in the House earlier this quadrennium in 2019, yet there is some hope — perhaps overly optimistic — that a lottery-only proposal could meet a better fate this time around.
Marsh told reporters on Tuesday afternoon that he continues to have the position that the people of Alabama deserve the final say on the lottery, just as they do on other forms of gambling such as casino gaming and sports betting.
“The people of the state want to vote on a lottery,” he stressed. “If someone produces a lottery bill and it could get through the legislature, I think they should have the right to vote on it.”
SB 214 would have accomplished a historic investment in broadband expansion, rural health care, mental health care and education.
Right now, the legislature’s drafted budget proposals would see broadband getting no funding increases year-over-year, despite how much legislators claim it is a top priority. Yet, even with increased budgetary line items, the state would still be faced with the need for between $4 billion and $6 billion to truly expand reliable, high-speed internet services to all Alabamians — a far cry from the $25 million grant program currently in the annual budget.
Asked by Yellowhammer News how else broadband expansion could be funded absent SB 214’s gaming revenue, Marsh said he was unsure.
“I don’t know, but we’ve got to find a way,” he responded. “High-speed connectivity in the state is just imperative.”
“We saw through the pandemic some of the struggles that schools were having, and, of course, you’ve got health care issues with telemedicine, which was so important to a lot of seniors. Using that gave them a comfort level,” Marsh advised. “And then you’ve got just economic development in general. If you really want a rural area to have a shot — you know, you can give people incentives to go there, but if you don’t have high-speed connectivity you’ve really narrowed down your opportunity. So, I think it’s extremely important.”
He continued, “Where we’re going to find that money, I don’t know. I would hope that if there’s a simple lottery bill, I would make a move to take some of that money to put toward high-speed internet, broadband. Because it does help education. I think that we as a state are going to have to make some really strong plans for how we handle that in the future.”
Two lottery constitutional amendments, along with an enabling bill, were introduced on Tuesday. The proposals as written would not see proceeds explicitly going towards broadband expansion.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
