By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — State lawmakers say they are confident the work they accomplished this session has put the Arkansas’ state-run lottery on track for a fall start.
“It’s still very realistic for us to be selling tickets in the fall of this year, and certainly we’ll be able to meet the goal of funding our lottery scholarships in the fall of 2010,” House Speaker Robbie Wills, D-Conway, said last week.
An ad hoc committee led by Wills spent months working on the 117-page bill, now Act 606 of 2009, that establishes the structure for the state-run lottery to fund college scholarships. The act calls for creation of a nine-member lottery commission, six members of which have already been appointed by Wills and Senate President Pro Tem Bob Johnson, D-Bigelow.
Gov. Mike Beebe is responsible for appointing the final three members of the commission. After that happens — the legislation requires the appointments to be made within 30 days of the bill’s signing — the commission will begin the work of hiring its executive director and staff.
“Once that is done and we have the vendor determined, within 60 days of that contract being signed we’ll be selling lottery tickets,” Wills said.
Lawmakers plan to set scholarship amounts when they return in February for the 2010 fiscal session. Deciding on scholarship amounts should be a much simpler job than crafting Act 606 was, Wills said.
“I think the picture will be a lot clearer next February,” he said. “This session we were kind of guessing, and we were speculating on what type of lottery we would have, how much money it would be raising each month. By February of 2010 we’ll have actual data on that and we’ll be able to make a very good determination on what we’re going to have available.”
The lottery act includes a sliding scale in which scholarships to attend a four-year-school could range from $2,500 to $6,000, depending on how much revenue the lottery generates. Scholarships to attend a two-year school could range from $1,250 to $3,000.
“I want the scholarships to be as big as they can be. I think we all do,” Wills said. “But what we don’t need to do is over-promise and under-deliver. I think everyone at the Capitol agrees with that.”
Lt. Gov. Bill Halter’s proposal for a state-run lottery to fund college scholarships passed with 63 percent of the vote in the 2008 general election. Halter led a signature drive to place the constitutional amendment on the ballot after lawmakers rejected it during the 2007 session.
Today, even lawmakers who initially opposed the lottery list it among their proudest achievements.
“I think every kid in Arkansas is going to have a chance we’ve never had,” said Rep. Rick Green, R-Van Buren. “Whether or not you voted for the lottery, which I didn’t, certainly now the people have spoke overwhelmingly for it, and we did our best to try to come up with legislation to make sure it was done right.”
“I opposed it, but the people, the majority, voted for it, so I agree with their vote,” said Rep. Frank Glidewell, R-Fort Smith. “I hope it will be used to help the kids financially and maybe we can see ourselves come up (in college graduation rates).”
