Governor Continues To Pitch Lottery Proposal

Governor Robert Bentley met with his newly created State Children’s Cabinet Wednesday morning.

The group’s purpose is to find new ways to help the state’s children.

Governor Bentley says his lottery would go a long way towards doing just that.

“Well it’s going to help them stay alive. There are half a million children that were born into poverty in Alabama. Half a million. That was not their fault. Those children, they didn’t choose where they were born or into what situation. But these children deserve to be taken care of. And the medicaid system is the only thing that we have right now,” said Bentley.

The governor is still working out the logistics of how his lottery plan will work, but he wants to keep the bill very simple.

It won’t expand casino gaming at all, which he says will help it pass.

While a state lottery isn’t his first choice, the governor says we’re out of options.

“We’ve cut government, we’ve saved money, we borrowed 437 million dollars, we’ve tried to pass taxes, we’ve tried to do all these things and we still have not solved it. Now is this going to solve it forever? Probably not. But I can tell you it’s going to solve it for a number of years,” said Bentley.

The Children’s Cabinet is made up of several state agencies, including public health, education, medicaid, and department of human resources.

DHR head Nancy Buckner says the governor’s plan could be a big help for the newly created group.

“And he gave us some direction on what we were to do, talk about how we can better serve children in this state. There are many many things that we can do. And hopefully going through this process, creating a resource guide for the public to use and where to go for children’s services, we’re probably going to identify gaps in children’s services,” said Buckner.

We could learn more details on the governor’s plan later this week.

The official call for the August 15 special session should be out soon as well.