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A View from the Cheap Seats by Garren Shipley
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From the Senate GOP Caucus:
Richmond, VA: The position of Senate Republicans and Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling that the Senate version of the budget is unconstitutional was validated today when the attorney in the Division of Legislative Services who had issued a contrary opinion last week reversed himself.
Citing new information that had come to light after his initial opinion, the senior attorney wrote in an email to members of the Senate Finance Committee regarding a section of the Constitution “its plain language requires that the revenues in the Lottery Proceeds Fund be appropriated from the Fund to localities for public education and not be deposited into the general fund of the Commonwealth. Therefore, it is my opinion that the current method of depositing the revenues into the general fund does not comport with this constitutional provision.”
The new information uncovered the fact that lottery profits have been deposited in a special fund for just one day then transferred to the state’s General Funds where they are available to be spent on any number of purposes.
Senator Stephen D. Newman (R – Lynchburg) was the Chief Patron in the Senate of the constitutional amendment which passed on 2000. He said, “When we crafted the wording we sought to make it perfectly clear that these funds were to go directly to counties, cities and towns, with no detour, to support public education on the local level. The Senate budget this year egregiously violates that standard.
Members of both parties now have to work together to find a solution, for today and for the future” Lt. Gov. Bolling ruled last week the raid violated the Constitution. However, his ruling was overturned on a straight party line vote. The Senate’s 21 Democrats, without any word of explanation on the floor, voted to void Bolling’s opinion.
Reacting to the reversal by the DLS attorney he said “I commend him for his candor in changing his opinion once all the facts were known. In fact, the current practice is even worse than I first imagined. By failing to create the Lottery Proceeds Fund as required by the Constitution, even a 4/5 vote may not have made this practice acceptable. Clearly, this is an issue the General Assembly needs to address and it needs to be addressed now.”
Lottery Position of Senate Republicans validated
Richmond, VA: The position of Senate Republicans and Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling that the Senate version of the budget is unconstitutional was validated today when the attorney in the Division of Legislative Services who had issued a contrary opinion last week reversed himself.
Citing new information that had come to light after his initial opinion, the senior attorney wrote in an email to members of the Senate Finance Committee regarding a section of the Constitution “its plain language requires that the revenues in the Lottery Proceeds Fund be appropriated from the Fund to localities for public education and not be deposited into the general fund of the Commonwealth. Therefore, it is my opinion that the current method of depositing the revenues into the general fund does not comport with this constitutional provision.”
The new information uncovered the fact that lottery profits have been deposited in a special fund for just one day then transferred to the state’s General Funds where they are available to be spent on any number of purposes.
Senator Stephen D. Newman (R – Lynchburg) was the Chief Patron in the Senate of the constitutional amendment which passed on 2000. He said, “When we crafted the wording we sought to make it perfectly clear that these funds were to go directly to counties, cities and towns, with no detour, to support public education on the local level. The Senate budget this year egregiously violates that standard.
Members of both parties now have to work together to find a solution, for today and for the future” Lt. Gov. Bolling ruled last week the raid violated the Constitution. However, his ruling was overturned on a straight party line vote. The Senate’s 21 Democrats, without any word of explanation on the floor, voted to void Bolling’s opinion.
Reacting to the reversal by the DLS attorney he said “I commend him for his candor in changing his opinion once all the facts were known. In fact, the current practice is even worse than I first imagined. By failing to create the Lottery Proceeds Fund as required by the Constitution, even a 4/5 vote may not have made this practice acceptable. Clearly, this is an issue the General Assembly needs to address and it needs to be addressed now.”
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