Lottery not revenue
The AP reports that the N.C. Court of Appeals has ruled the lottery was properly passed in 2005. In their opinion, the justices say:
...the North Carolina Education Lottery Act is not a revenue bill and thus was not required to be enacted under the mandated constitutional procedural requirements. Because we conclude that the Lottery Act was not a bill "enacted to raise money on the credit of the State, or to pledge the faith of the State directly or indirectly for the payment of any debt, or to impose any tax upon the people of the State," (See footnote 2) we agree with the trial court that the Lottery Act does not constitute a revenue bill.
Basically, that's a long way of saying that the General Assembly wasn't required to follow the same procedures needed to pass a tax or issue bonds in order to pass the state lottery.
However, there is an odd disconnect between the plane English understanding of things and the legal definition of the process, particularly the court says the lottery isn't a revenue agency and the lottery itself is busy telling you how much revenue it has raised.
A split opinion on the appeals court means the state Supreme Court will likely get a chance to reconcile language and reality.
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