Cook: Less Scholarship Money And More Headaches for Hutchinson?

A proposal to abolish the Lottery Commission and have its operations placed directly under the authority of the Department of Finance and Administration comes before a Senate Committee on Thursday.

The legislation, sponsored by Senator Jimmy Hickey (R-Texarkana), has the potential to create massive headaches for Gov. Hutchinson and possibly reduce the number of lottery scholarships.

I was involved in numerous discussions on how to structure the lottery back in 2008 and 2009 while I was chief of staff at the Lt. Governor’s office which helped pass the lottery in the first place.

What we all quickly learned back then was, at its core, the lottery is a marketing business and it needs to be run like a business. In the beginning of the discussions, there was some thought of having DF&A oversee the lottery. but it became clear that was the exact wrong option. DF&A is a massive government bureaucracy with no experience running businesses.

If the lottery is placed under DF&A it will impose its myriad of government regulations, which works for normal state agencies, but will probably stifle the growth of the lottery which would ultimately lead to less scholarships.

The irony of the Republican-sponsored legislation is if it passes, I’d make a wager it will create a world of headaches for the Republican Governor.

With the lottery placed under the Department of Finance and Administration, Gov. Hutchinson will be directly responsible for all lottery activities. I spoke briefly with Senator Hickey and confirmed that his legislation gives the Governor the authority to hire the lottery director, which definitely means Hutchinson would be responsible for the lottery.

If lottery sales increase, then Hutchinson can claim credit for it. However, every time lottery revenue dips and/or scholarships are reduced, Hutchinson gets all the blame. Hutchinson better hope gas prices stay low for the next four years.

How many dozens of anti-lottery editorials has the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette run over the years? Hutchinson will have to get used to seeing his name in future lottery editorials.

There are reforms that can be made to be make the lottery more efficient and save money thus creating more funds for scholarships and those discussions should take place this session.

But let’s keep an independent lottery commission that is run by Arkansas citizens and not by government bureaucrats.