LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Lottery Commission on Monday approved a budget projecting the lottery will raise $98 million for college scholarships next fiscal year, starting July 1, after the lottery’s director said the lottery probably will raise more than $96 million for scholarships in the current year, which will end June 30.
The lottery generated $94.2 million in net proceeds for scholarships in fiscal 2011, which ended June 30, 2011 — the first full fiscal year that the lottery operated. The lottery started selling tickets Sept. 28, 2009.
During its meeting Monday, the commission also elected Ben Pickard of Searcy as its chairman for the next year to succeed Dianne Lamberth of Batesville.
Lamberth, an appointee of Gov. Mike Beebe in 2009, said she intends to serve the remaining three years of her term on the commission.
Commissioners also accepted Internal Auditor Mike Hyde’s resignation, effective June 22, and decided to begin advertising the position.
They also agreed to ask the Legislature’s lottery oversight committee to recommend that the 2013 Legislature grant the lottery police powers.
Afterward, Pickard said he wants “to continue to right the ship” at the lottery as the chairman.
“I think it is in very good shape at this time,” he said.
Pickard retired in 2008 as vice chancellor of student services at Arkansas State University-Beebe and was appointed to the Lottery Commission in 2009 by Beebe.
He said he intends for the lottery “to work with our retailers to make sure we maximize what we can for higher education.”
Pickard said he also plans to work as closely as he can with the oversight committee and the governor’s office “to make sure everything runs smoothly, along those lines, and for us to have a good year for scholarships, and a quiet year for controversy.”
The commission also elected Co mmissioner George Hammons of Pine Bluff as its vice chairman and Commissioner Steve Faris of Central as its secretary/treasurer for the next year.
The fiscal 2013 budget that the commission OK’d on Monday projects the $98 million in net proceeds on the basis of projected total ticket sales of $480.5 million.
The lottery’s fiscal 2012 budget — proposed by former Director Ernie Passailaigue — projected the net proceeds would be $102.9 million based on sales of $459.2 million.
In December, then-lottery Interim Director Julie Baldridge told lawmakers that the lottery was on track to raise $89 million for scholarships in the fiscal year that ends June 30.
Baldridge, who is the lottery’s spokesman, said Monday that the lottery’s net proceeds totaled $80.8 million during the first 10 months of this fiscal year through April 30.
Lottery Director Bishop Woosley told the commission that the lottery probably is in a good position to raise more than $96 million for college scholarships in this fiscal year ending June 30 based on its past performance.
Hyde has worked for the lottery since September 2009.
He raised questions about the legality of the commission’s contract with lottery vendor Scientific Games before the commission voted last month to confirm the 2009 contract’s validity. He submitted his resignation about two weeks ago and he has declined to comment about it.
The commission voted to follow state government’s lead, and grant lump-sum merit bonuses of 3 percent, 2 percent or 1 percent to the commission’s employees, depending on their evaluations, in the current fiscal year.
On the police powers matter, in 2010 the oversight committee recommended against designating the lottery as a law enforcement agency, after it initially recommended that.
Woosley said it would help for the lottery’s security officials to have police powers because local law enforcement agencies often are short of staff and don’t have certain knowledge of the lottery, and it would be easier for lottery security officials to investigate lottery-related crimes and develop a case file for a prosecutor.
Faris, a former state senator, said more than a dozen state agencies have police powers.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 05/22/2012