LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – A proposal to abolish the independent commission running Arkansas’ lottery and put the games under the governor’s control advanced to a Senate vote Tuesday, with its backer saying the changes are needed to boost sluggish ticket sales.
The Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee endorsed the proposal, which would eliminate the nine-member panel running the games and put the lottery under the state Department of Finance and Administration. The measure would make the lottery’s director an appointee of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who last month said he’d support moving the lottery to DFA.
Arkansas voters approved the lottery in 2008 to raise money for college scholarships, with ticket sales beginning the next year. The amount of money raised for those scholarships, however, has declined in recent years.
Sen. Jimmy Hickey, the bill’s sponsor, said the change would save money by eliminating lottery positions that are already being performed by the finance department.
“If we act now, there’s still time to turn this around,” Hickey, a Texarkana Republican, told the panel before its vote.
Lottery Director Bishop Woosley said he’s not taking a position on Hickey’s measure.
“The structure and governance of the commission is solely within the discretion of the Legislature,” Woosley told reporters after the vote.
Arkansas lawmakers in 2009 set up the commission – with three members each appointed by the governor, House speaker and Senate president – to hire the lottery’s director and make most of the decisions on the games’ operations.
A consultant hired to review the games told lawmakers in December the lottery needed to “reboot” its image, saying negative publicity about the lottery has led to mistrust among the public that has hampered sales. The lottery’s original director, Ernie Passailaigue, resigned in 2011 after facing criticism over a legislative audit about the games’ management and his $324,000 salary. His two top deputies left soon afterward, with one resigning and one being fired.
Hickey’s proposal moved easily through the Senate panel, with no one objecting to the measure on a voice vote. At least two members of the panel said they’d likely support his proposal, despite reservations about abolishing the commission.
“I’m worried about it still because I do believe the lottery was set up so it would be citizen-run,” said Sen. Linda Chesterfield, a Little Rock Democrat. “But we’re not doing well fiscally, so we have to do something.”
Hickey is pushing the change as he’s also calling for stiffening the requirements for receiving the college scholarships funded by the lottery. Hickey said he hoped to present that measure to a Senate committee in the coming weeks.
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Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.
