Ron Sparks Wants To Bring Lottery To Alabama

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks has unveiled a campaign platform for governor that includes creating a state lottery to pay for college scholarships.
At a news conference Friday in Montgomery, Sparks also advocated
taxing the growing electronic gambling industry in Alabama. He said
he would use the money to eliminate the state sales tax on
groceries, provide more funding for education and Medicaid, and
create a disaster relief fund for agriculture.
Sparks also called for an end to annual property tax
reappraisals and a return to doing them every four years.
He faces U.S. Rep. Artur Davis of Birmingham in the Democratic
primary in June next year.
Davis issued a press release in response to Sparks' news conference.
"Instead of putting forward new plans to strengthen public education, instead of proposing new ideas to recruit high paying jobs, Sparks wants to refight old political battles from the past decade," Davis said. "When pressed on how much money his plans would bring in, or how he would deal with existing laws on gaming, he said he did not know. What Alabamians are hearing from Sparks is nothing but the old Alabama politics-- the same old sound bites, fuzzy math, and no bold new plans that challenge us to move forward.”

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)