Lottery bill voted down in Mississippi. Here’s why.

An infrastructure bill that will bring millions of dollars to the Mississippi Coast for road, bridge, water and sewer projects is on its way to Gov. Phil Bryant, who is expected to sign it.

But the fate of a lottery bill that would have helped pay for roads and bridges was uncertain at best after the House voted it down — 53 for and 61 against. The bill was held on a motion to reconsider, giving it a slim chance for revival Tuesday when the House reconvenes at 12:30 p.m.

Gulfport Democrat Sonya Williams-Barnes said the Legislative Black Caucus opposed the conference report on the bill from the Senate because it “gutted” provisions she and Rep. David Baria made to send some of the lottery proceeds to education programs, specifically pre-K and classroom supplies.

“The Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus supports education,” she said. “And this bill has gutted it. The little portion that went toward education was gutted. Yeah, the words are there, but the teeth are not there.”

The bill did have a provision to spend anything over $80 million raised by the lottery on education programs, but left it up to the Legislature to appropriate it year after year.

“We as a Legislature could choose to send it somewhere else,” she said.



Education Committee Chairman Richard Bennett of Long Beach, who pitched the bill on the House floor, said members thought the lottery was the wrong way to raise money.

”This is one of those votes, that I think is just up to you,” he said. “What your people want. And ethically and morally, I think if you’re against it, you need to vote against it.



”You’ve heard me say it before, I represent 25,000 people and that’s the way I base all my votes. Whatever I think the majority of my people want. That’s the way it is.”



A short time later, the Senate voted 31-17 for the lottery, a vote that would be meaningless unless the House changes its mind Tuesday.

Road bill

In the transportation bill, $50 million in earmarked projects that were stripped from the bill by the House are expected to resurface in a bill dealing with $600 million in BP Deepwater Horizon economic damages if that bill is added to the special session of the Legislature on Monday or Tuesday.



“They’ll be in the bill,” said House Speaker Philip Gunn, after the House voted 109-4 for a compromise infrastructure bill approved earlier by the Senate. “This whole special session is about infrastructure. That’s a good thing. It’s a good thing that we address that.”



The projects taken out of the bill included $2 million each for a road near Ingalls Shipbuilding, a rail corridor project and widening Cook Road in Jackson County, which would connect the county to shopping areas in D’Iberville. Another $1 million would have gone to Long Beach for its streets.



Gulf Coast Business Council President Ashley Edwards said he was OK with using some of the BP on roads and bridges in other parts of the state that weren’t hit by oil from the BP disaster.



Bryant was expected to add the BP bill to the special later Monday or early Tuesday.



The infrastructure bill allows the state to borrow $300 million with $250 million of that to be used for emergency projects statewide. There are more than 100 bridges closed across the state and many more that need major repairs.



It also would send some of the use tax money collected primarily through internet sales to the cities and counties.



Cities and counties would have to continue spending on roads and bridges at the rate they are now to qualify for the new money. And, the state spending would be in addition to money they have already approved.



And, the bill would impose a tax on owners of hybrid vehicles, $75 a year, and electric vehicles, $150 a year, to make up for taxes lawmakers say are lost because they don’t spend as much on fuel as drivers of conventional vehicles.



A prohibition against video lottery terminals that casinos and others say could turn the state into a maze of truck-stop casinos similar to those in Louisiana and Illinois was restored to the bill by the conference committee.



“This would be an expansion of gambling,” said Mississippi Gaming Association Director Larry Gregory. ”I think everyone in the state knows this is not was gambling was meant to be” when it was proposed.



Gunn had said if the prohibition wasn’t returned to the bill, “that would be a deal-killer.”

This story was originally published August 27, 2018 at 9:05 PM.