Presumed dead state lottery comes back to life, passes Alabama House
In the dead of night, the state lottery bill came back to life. After a constitutional amendment to establish a state lottery fell two votes shy of the number required for approval, the bill was presumed dead Thursday evening. With no clear path to passage, and a looming Friday deadline for the amendment to appear on the Nov. 8 general election ballot, lawmakers in favor of the bill began a series of long-shot resuscitation efforts to bring the bill back to life. Remarkably, their efforts worked. In an unbelievable of series of votes, supporters of the lottery managed to revive the amendment around midnight and pass it, 64-35, with just one vote more than was needed. Three Democrat representatives — Selma’s Darrio Melton, Hayneville’s Kelvin Lawrence and Grand Bay’s David Sessions — crossed the aisle to make passage possible. “I would like to thank the Democrats and Republicans for coming together and showing bipartisan leadership,” Gov. Robert Bentley said Friday morning. “I would just like to say that I appreciate what they did and what they did for the people of this state.” The amendment’s future is still not finalized, as it must now head back to the Alabama Senate for final approval, where senators must decide whether or not to go along with mostly minor House changes to the legislation they passed last week. But for the time being, the lottery bill is still alive.
Alabama lottery passes House Committee, still has hope
An Alabama lottery may still have life in it yet. And for some, there’s still hope it will make its way before Alabama voters this November. The House Economic Development and Tourism Committee approved the Gov. Robert Bentley-backed state lottery bill, a proposed constitutional amendment, by an 8-3 vote Wednesday. The full Alabama House of Representatives will debate the bill Thursday. It would take 63 votes in the 103-member House to pass the lottery bill. But to move forward, it would then need to return to the Senate for another vote, as it is a different version than what the Senate passed on Friday. Lawmakers had originally been told the proposed constitutional amendment needed to pass the Alabama Legislature no later than Wednesday, Aug. 24 in order to make it on the general election ballot Nov. 8. Secretary of State John Merrill on Wednesday reminded lawmakers of this, saying the deadline had passed. However, the bill’s sponsor, Springville Republican state Sen. Jim McClendon, said lawmakers had until Friday. Merrill is now seeking the opinion of the state Attorney General Luther Strange.
