Ron Sparks Wants To Bring Lottery To Alabama

Alabama Governor State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks has unveiled a campaign platform for governor that includes creating a state lottery to pay for college scholarships.

by WKRG Staff/The Associated Press

Published: Thu, July 02, 2009 - 12:21 pm CST Last Updated: Thu, July 02, 2009 - 12:58 pm CST

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks has unveiled a campaign platform for governor that includes creating a state lottery to pay for college scholarships.
At a news conference Friday in Montgomery, Sparks also advocated
taxing the growing electronic gambling industry in Alabama. He said
he would use the money to eliminate the state sales tax on
groceries, provide more funding for education and Medicaid, and
create a disaster relief fund for agriculture.
Sparks also called for an end to annual property tax
reappraisals and a return to doing them every four years.
He faces U.S. Rep. Artur Davis of Birmingham in the Democratic
primary in June next year.
Davis issued a press release in response to Sparks' news conference.
"Instead of putting forward new plans to strengthen public education, instead of proposing new ideas to recruit high paying jobs, Sparks wants to refight old political battles from the past decade," Davis said. "When pressed on how much money his plans would bring in, or how he would deal with existing laws on gaming, he said he did not know. What Alabamians are hearing from Sparks is nothing but the old Alabama politics-- the same old sound bites, fuzzy math, and no bold new plans that challenge us to move forward.”

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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FastFred Says:

Thu, Jul 02, 2009 at 7:05 pm

I do drive to Fla. for lottery tickets,and I also have spent a lot of time in the casinos in Mississippi.I hope they bring it all to Alabama !!

snews Says:

Thu, Jul 02, 2009 at 3:12 pm

KxVicious:

Thanks for your kind words but I assure you the idea didn’t originate with me. If the lottery comes to a vote you will hear it expressed again…a lot.

KxVicious Says:

Thu, Jul 02, 2009 at 2:25 pm

Snews, what a fantastic way to think of it! Tax you can choose NOT to pay! They should think about using that as a slogan so maybe those idiots that always vote it down can understand it!

snews Says:

Thu, Jul 02, 2009 at 1:47 pm

I’m all for a lotto here in Alabama, although I won’t play it. I think of it as a tax I don’t HAVE to pay. I just hope they don’t sell tickets in the check out line at the grocery. When I was living in Louisiana it used to make me furious to wait behind people who were gambling when all I wanted to do was get my groceries and go home.

KxVicious Says:

Thu, Jul 02, 2009 at 1:16 pm

Oh, and if you’re against a lottery, then put your children in private school, and don’t buy a ticket! Don’t vote no! You’re just making GA, MS, and FL richer!

You don’t have to like something to benefit from it….For example, think of the BILLIONS in tax revenue that come from cigarette sales…The more bans that we put on them, the less money we make.

cicicamy Says:

Thu, Jul 02, 2009 at 1:08 pm

Couldn’t have said it better.

KxVicious Says:

Thu, Jul 02, 2009 at 1:05 pm

I see this guy’s name on every gas pump I visit, and it always made me chuckle that his last name was “Sparks”

Lotto in Alabama? I say BRING IT ON! People from Alabama are currently driving to Mississippi, Florida and Georgia for lotto tickets and casinos…It’s waaaay overdue for that money to stay here where we need it!