LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’ lottery sold more than $485 million in tickets and raised at least $99 million for college scholarships in its first year of operation, a lottery spokesman said Tuesday.
In October of 2009, lottery director Ernie Passailaigue projected the lottery would raise $102.3 million for college scholarships in its first year.
But lottery spokesman Julie Baldridge said the $99 million will be increased Thursday to factor in the estimated money raised for scholarships in September. She said the total will exceed Passailaigue’s projections.
Passailaigue, who makes $324,000 a year has been criticized by some of his bosses on the Arkansas Lottery Commission for granting himself and his two vice presidents 200 hours apiece of compensatory time for hours worked during the lottery’s startup.
But a Sept. 14 commission document, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, indicates that Passailaigue used only 16 of those hours and voluntarily gave up the rest.
Passailaigue didn’t return a message left on his cell phone late Tuesday seeking an explanation.
Also Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who won’t be in office when the Legislature meets in January in regular session, offered several suggestions on how to improve the lottery.
Halter helped persuade nearly 63 percent of voters in November of 2008 to approve lottery-authorizing Amendment 87.
Halter, like Passailaigue, has projected the lottery would raise about $100 million a year for college scholarships.
The state Department of Finance and Administration estimated that a lottery’s net proceeds would be about $55 million a year.
The lottery started selling scratch-off tickets on Sept. 28, 2009, and has steadily increased its portfolio of games by adding Powerball, Cash 3, Mega Millions, Cash 4, and a raffle game.
So far, 29,119 students have been offered lottery scholarships, and 4,603 other applicants have met the qualifications to receive the scholarships but haven’t been offered them, according to Tara Smith, financial-aid coordinator for the state Department of Higher Education.
The department has identified 6,713 applicants who didn’t meet the eligibility criteria.
Halter held a news conference Tuesday in his office at the state Capitol to mark the one-year anniversary of the lottery’s ticket sales and called the lottery’s tripling of the number recipients of the state-administered scholarships “a tremendous first-year.”
But he said, “We look forward in the future to refinement and improvement to not only in the scholarship program but also of the lottery operation itself.”
Among other things, he said the scholarship application review process should be accelerated to ensure that graduating high school seniors receive notice of their awards within a month of the submission of their applications, and sufficient Department of Higher Education staff should be assigned to answer a toll free help line and respond immediately to questions about eligibility rules and applications.
Halter didn’t seek re-election this year, instead challenging U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark. Lincoln beat Halter in the Democratic primary.
State Rep. Barry Hyde, DNorth Little Rock, co-chairman of the Legislature’s lottery oversight committee, said a group of lawmakers already is reviewing these and many other issues.
He said he hasn’t talked with Halter about his suggestions.
Gov. Mike Beebe, who voted against Amendment 87, hasn’t talked with Halter about these ideas either, said Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample.
“This was a massive undertaking the first time around, we’ll be looking at everything to see where we can improve the second time around,” De-Cample said. “Mr. Halter’s suggestions will be considered along with many others as we move forward.”
Jim Purcell, director of the state Department of Higher Education, said the department is considering ways to shorten the time for notifying students about the scholarship awards, while maintaining the integrity of the scholarship program.
“I am not an advocate for awarding funds on a first-come first-serve basis. It should be noted a prioritization process has to be maintained as long as there are more applicants than dollars,” he said.
Lottery foe Jerry Cox,president of the Family Council, lamented that lottery proponents “act as if this lottery created money. All it is a huge of transfer of money from the pockets of poor people into the hands of state government with a small percentage of that money actually being given to scholarships.”
Passailaigue has insisted that the lottery doesn’t prey on the poor and its players should reflect the state’s general population.
On Sept. 8, Passailaigue survived a motion by commissioner Ben Pickard of Searcy to oust him from his job.
Pickard said he disagreed with Passailaigue’s decision to grant hundreds of hours of compensatory time to high paid employees who are exempt from being paid overtime.
Granting compensatory time off to exempt employees is unusual in state government.
Commission Chairman Dianne Lamberth of Batesville said the comp-time issue isn’t on the commission’s agenda for Thursday.
It’s possible the commission will discuss the issue, but it’s also possible that the commission will send the matter to its personnel committee for its review, she said.
Passailaigue said in an email dated Sept. 14 to commission employees that “until further notice, the use of any accrued compensatory time by exempt [Arkansas Lottery Commission] employees is suspended pending further interpretation and review of the federal and state statutes, which govern compensatory time for exempt employees.”
A spreadsheet from the Lottery Commission listing comp time for its employees shows Passailaigue has used 16 hours of compensatory time, while Vice President of Administration Ernestine Middleton has used 178.5 hours and Vice President of Gaming David Barden has used 134.5 hours. Barden and Middleton are each paid $225,000 a year.
It shows that Passailaigue had a beginning balance of 723.75 hours of compensatory time, Barden a beginning balance of 514.5 hours and Middleton a beginning balance of 412 hours.
The document shows that Passailaigue, Barden and Middleton have no leftover compensatory time off.
The document shows Passailaigue voluntarily reduced his comp time by 707.75 hours, Barden reduced his by 380 hours, and Middleton reduced hers by 233.5 hours.
Lottery attorney Bishop Woosley said the beginning balance of hours listed on the spreadsheet don’t take into account the fact Passailaigue, Barden and Middleton each voluntarily reduced their comp time to 200 hours in mid-July.
The spreadsheet makes no reference to that reduction.
Pickard said he’s confused by the document and plans to ask questions about it during Thursday’s meeting of the commission.
Passailaigue has defended granting comp time to the trio in part by citing hours worked for the lottery in June of 2009 before they started getting paid by the lottery. They previously worked for the South Carolina lottery.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 09/29/2010