Lottery hearing
I'm just back from the Superior Court hearing on whether the lottery was passed in a constitutional manner.
Basically, the oral arguments were a good summary of the case.
Former Supreme Court Judge Robert Orr, arguing for the NC Institute for Constitutional Law, told the court:
- The lottery is a tax, a revenue raising bill, as defined by the state constitution.
- Such bills need to be heard, voted upon, and have their votes recorded on three separate days.
- Neither the reading on three separate days nor the recording of votes happened.
- The court should declare the law unconstitutional.
Best quotes:
- "If this is an education lottery, I would submit to you this 35-cents is the education tax," referring to the 35-cents on the dollar from lottery tickets that supposed to go towards education.
- "A ruling that the lottery act is not constitutional does not mean North Carolina will never have a lottery," suggesting that the General Assembly could hold a special session and pass it again.
Norma Harrell, a Special Deputy Attorney General for the state, said:
- The lottery is not a tax. Playing is voluntary.
- Since it's not a tax, the three day provision doesn't apply.
- And, oh yeah, Orr and company waited too long to bring the suit.
Best quotes:
- "A tax is a forced contribution to government. No one is force to contribute here...you don't have to buy a lottery ticket."
- "There's no tax here, it's just a charge for purchasing a ticket."
Judge Henry Hight said that he would decide the case by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, Lottery Director Tom Shaheen, who watched the festivities in court, said after the hearing that his crew would continue pushing forward with work to get things up and running by March 30.
Stay tuned.