Governor may be willing to support lottery vote

Sources say the governor may be prepared to get behind legislation that would create a state lottery as one way to deal with longer-term funding problems in the general fund.  Bentley has never supported a lottery proposal. However, he has also consistently said he would not stand in the way of a vote by Alabamians if the Legislature were to approve a proposed constitutional amendment calling for the creation of a lottery.  Multiple sources say that Bentley and House of Representatives leaders led by Speaker Mike Hubbard have been in active discussions about what a budget-fixing package of bills will look like in the House and part of those discussions has been a proposal to seek a lottery. State Senate leader Del Marsh has been the leading proponent of legislation that would legalize casino-type gambling in the state and create a lottery. Marsh introduced his legislation in both the regular session and the first special session. Both times the legislation went nowhere but it is also true that Marsh did not aggressively push it as much as he was testing the political waters with it.  Marsh has said he will not introduce his gambling bill in the second special session.

Bentley has called a second special session to begin in five days. Bentleys plan includes

an increase in what smokers pay for a pack of cigarettes; a change in a business tax that would benefit small businesses across the state but increase the taxes of some larger ones; moving some money from the state's budget for schools and colleges and ending the tax deduction Alabamians now take on the amount they pay in social security taxes, or FICA.