Decatur Daily - Candidate Speaks Mind During Stop at Rotary Club of Decatur

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By Eric Fleischauer

In his gubernatorial campaign speeches, including in Decatur on Monday, Ron Sparks is unflagging in his support of the impoverished in Alabama and legalized gambling.
The former, he says, is a result of his upbringing in rural North Alabama. The latter, he continues, is an effort to increase revenue that could help the poor get better educations and more Medicaid funding.

Conflict of goals?

Some see a conflict in his twin goals, and the Democrat who will oppose Rep. Robert Bentley, R-Tuscaloosa, in November, faced questions about that conflict at a Monday meeting of the Rotary Club of Decatur.

Opposition

After a speech touting his goals, Sparks, 57, heard from the opposition. One question came from Barney Lovelace, a local lawyer and a Republican.

"Are you concerned at all that if we have casinos in Alabama, poor people will be taken advantage of and are the ones who will suffer and end up being the ones who are taxed?"
Sparks did not address whether expanded gambling in the state - combined with his proposed tax of at least 25 percent - would disadvantage the state's poor.
"It's not if we have casinos," Sparks said. "We have them now. We've had gambling in Alabama for 25 years."
The gambling is not just within the state, Sparks said.
"We're loading buses with people sending them to Biloxi (Miss.) every day. People are going across the state line every day to buy lottery tickets in Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. What I want to do is control it. I want to tax it and regulate it."

Control, expansion

In Sparks' mind, though, control means expansion. It means more people would gamble in Alabama, but the state government would enjoy a piece of the action. "It's already having the effect (on the poor)," Sparks said. "I can't legislate morality, but I can educate our children and I can take care of our senior citizens and I can do what's right for the people of Alabama." Jack Fite, another Republican and owner of Fite Building Co., asked the next question on the issue.

Fite said it was his understanding that the poorest counties in Georgia - a state Sparks routinely holds up as a model for lottery-based education funding - were contributing a higher percentage of funding than the wealthier counties.
Fite also pointed out financial problems in Mississippi and Nevada, both of which have extensive gambling. "About 25 percent of what Georgia is getting is coming from Alabama," Sparks responded. "Georgia's lottery (revenue) has come up in the past 13 years, even in economically difficult times. Do we believe the people of Alabama are going to quit buying lottery tickets if we just forget about it today? Why are we willing to continue to let people in Alabama buy lottery tickets and not receive the benefit from it?"

Sparks rarely strays far from gambling and lottery, but he keeps his message folksy.
He supports investment in alternative fuels. In the hills of DeKalb County, where he was raised, he said residents have been producing alternative fuels for decades. He said his grandfather always told him to pour a little "alternative fuel" - that is, moonshine - on his earthworms to keep them alive for the next fishing trip.

The candidate is struggling with neck pain. Asked whether he meant Bentley was a pain in the neck, he laughed. "No, Bentley is a pain in the ass," he joked in a meeting with Daily editors prior to his Rotary address.

"I understand what our challenges are," Sparks said. "Our challenge is to try to run state government effectively under some of the tough economic problems we face."
He claims a $1.4 billion road program which he supports would "put 35,000 people back to work."
The road program, he said, also would help Huntsville's Redstone Arsenal in the next round of Base Realignment and Closure. He touted his efforts as agriculture commissioner, especially his efforts to open trade with Cuba, India, Egypt and other countries.
But he always comes back to gambling.

Editorial meeting

In the editorial board meeting, Sparks said he wants the people to have an opportunity to vote to expand gambling. "I want to lay it out there as a destination point, so when people come here they want to come here to do that kind of entertainment. We're letting 4 million visits go from Alabama to Mississippi every year." Sparks said his underlying purpose in supporting expanded gambling with taxation is to raise state revenue. "Even when we get elected, the challenges are going to be huge. They're going to be monumental. Not having any idea on how to raise revenue (a slam at Bentley), they magnify two times."
If his effort to get a constitutional amendment expanding and taxing gambling fails, he said, his governorship would be similar to that Bentley is proposing: short of funds.
Sparks acknowledged he has received considerable funding from political action committees associated with gambling, but said Bentley has received similar funding from PACs managed by Haley Barbour, governor of Mississippi.
"My opponent stood up in Birmingham, Ala., and said, "I have not taken any gambling money and I've made sure I haven't taken any gambling money.' I think before the campaign is over you'll know different than that."
Money from gambling interests in Alabama support gambling in the state. Money from Mississippi opposes Alabama gambling, Sparks and other critics say, because Mississippi doesn't want competition. "People are so concerned about the money I've raised, and I'm the one who's raised the least amount of money," Sparks said. "It's pretty obvious I ain't too good at it."
He said federal stimulus money saved the state in recent years. Without it, he said, education and health care would have suffered. "I don't know what they would have done," Sparks said. "I think you have to have someone (as governor) who understands that and is willing to go after that money."

That may be the fundamental difference between Sparks and Bentley. Republican Bentley rails against federal intrusion, promising to fight health-care reform. Sparks said it's a pointless battle. Rebuff health-care reform, he said, and the federal government will take it over. Better to pass legislation that tailors federal programs to the state's needs, and help most Alabamians in the process.

State Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, introduced Sparks at the Rotary meeting. He also is slated to introduce Robert Bentley, the Republican candidate for governor, when he speaks next month.

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