Sparks Lambasts Gov. Bob Riley's Speech
January 13th, 2010Alabama’s agricultural commissioner Ron Sparks, who is vying to win the Democratic nomination for governor in 2010, lambasted Gov. Bob Riley’s Tuesday night state of the state speech in a statement released by the campaign on Wednesday.
“Last night’s performance by Bob Riley was shameful,” Sparks said. “At a time when our working families are struggling under the weight of an 11 percent unemployment rate, he says he’s created thousands of new jobs. At a time when teacher layoffs are a possibility and our kids bring toilet paper to school to help out, Bob Riley says he has plenty of money for education. And at a time when our seniors and children wonder if they will still have health care next year, Bob Riley says, ‘Don’t worry. Be happy.’”
“Folks, we don’t just have a budget crisis, we have a leadership crisis,” Sparks said. “I am the only candidate for governor with a plan to increase revenue. We need an education lottery and we need to make legal gaming establishments finally pay their share of taxes, just like Alabama families do. We need action, not slogans or sound bites.”
That’s the kind of governor we need, Sparks said, “not one that hides his head in the sand or tells us how sunny it is while the rain pours.”
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January 14th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
Should Sparks get elected, I wish him well with the lottery plan. State lotteries have had a mixed record — some work well raising revenue for their intended purposes, almost always education, some have become cesspools of corruption.
If there is going to be a lottery, there might as well be legalized casino gambling as well. People typically don’t travel and stay overnight to play a state lottery, but they will to gamble at a casino. A lottery plus casino gambling, maybe limited to cruise boats or the coast, would raise much more money than a lottery alone.
Then there’s the “Alabama factor” to consider. Outside Chicago and Louisiana, we seem to have the most corruptible politicians in the country. Any state lottery-gambling scheme needs to be locked tight, somehow, against the very politicians who will enact the plan.
All of that adds up to a tall order — count on vociferous opposition from fundamentalists and the Mississippi gaming industry to boot — if Ron Sparks is elected.
January 14th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Need we remind readers again that Don Siegelman was elected governor in 1998 on a single issue campaign: An education lottery. Maybe it will work this time. Maybe the Christians will be beaten back simply by the economic need in these trying times…