Powerball not going to voters in 2006

Saturday, December 17, 2005 posted 10:18 AM EST

LARAMIE - Wyoming residents won't get to vote next year on whether they want the state to join the multistate Powerball lottery.

The Joint Travel, Recreation and Wildlife Interim Committee voted 8-4 Thursday against sponsoring a bill that would have put a nonbinding referendum on the 2006 ballot.

Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan, noted that a vote on a bill that would have let Wyoming join a lottery died by a tie vote during the 2005 Wyoming Legislature. Introducing any nonbudget items in the budget session that starts in February would require a two-thirds majority.

"I don't see how you're going to get a two-thirds vote," Burns said, noting that the same people are still in the Legislature who deadlocked on the measure earlier this year.

Rep. Kermit Brown, R-Laramie, said lawmakers should vote on the issue of establishing a lottery, not hand off the issue to a nonbinding vote by the electorate.

"It's a cop-out," Brown said. "We were elected to make those decisions."

Brown also said he feared unleashing a series of nonbinding votes. "It is just an endless morass that we are causing," he said.

Sen. Tony Ross, R-Cheyenne, said he already has a sense of what his constituents think about the prospect of a lottery. "This is a silly expenditure of money," he said of the prospect of a referendum.

Rep. Pat Childers, R-Cody, committee co-chairman, said he supported the measure because of doubts about Wyomingites' feelings on gambling.

Nearly 70 percent of residents voted against giving counties the authority to approve limited-stakes casinos in 1994.

"They didn't say no to Powerball. They said no to casino gambling," Childers said. "I think it's an issue that needs to be cleared up by the voters."

Rep. Wayne Reese, D-Cheyenne, a supporter of a lottery, offered an amendment to make the public vote binding until a staffer told him that only members of the public, not the Legislature, can sponsor a binding referendum.

Burns, the other co-chairman, argued that if the measure is defeated on a two-thirds introductory vote in the 2006 budget session, it could hurt the chances of a lottery bill passing in the 2007 general session. He said it would offer opponents another negative vote to highlight.

"I would rather it have a fresh start," Burns said.

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