Lottery

"We're going to have to find whatever ways we can to provide pre-kindergarten and reduced class sizes," Easley told a meeting of the Education: Everybody's Business Coalition, a statewide organization of school and business groups. "I believe a lottery for education makes sense… "We can be the best, but we're not going to get there by being timid," Easley said. "We need to be bold and aggressive… "The more informed parents are, the more empowered they are, and the more involved they'll be," Easley said… "While we make cuts, we know we have to find additional sources of revenue," Easley said… "We know we are losing $ 300 million already to Georgia and Virginia," the governor said. "We're letting Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia walk off with the money."
-Easley advocates lottery; 1/20/01 Raleigh News and Observer

"We are spending hundreds of millions of dollars - North Carolina dollars - to build new schools in other states, while we're packing our kids in trailers at home," Easley said. "We are the only state that plays the lottery and gives away the proceeds."
-Easley advocates NC lottery; 2/20/01 Asheville Citizen Times

"It's frustrating for me to know we have this big budget shortfall and there is $400 or $500 million laying on the table, not that we are leaving it there, but we are letting Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia walk off with the money that we could be using to educate our kids," he said. "They could vote out this lottery without a referendum. It would be the reasonable thing to do and it would be something that the people wanted done. It would certainly help us with the education of our kids a lot earlier," he said.
-Gov. Easley Continues To Campaign For Statewide Lottery; 4/9/02 WRAL-TV

"As we begin to move forward, it will use all the lottery funds. It will be impossible to supplant it," the governor said. "Logistically, you've locked it into nonsupplantable."
-Lottery money would supplant for at least a year; 5/24/02 Associated Press

"A tax increase isn't necessary if (legislators) do the education lottery," Easley said at a recent news conference. "Why would you not do something that the people of this state want to do?"
-State lottery measure still alive; 5/26/02 Greensboro News and Record

Gov. Mike Easley said he wants a lottery in the state to fund his education programs. He said the lottery vote's postponement is frustrating.
"You know we are just a couple of votes away, but the real issue is we have an awful lot of people who are putting politics first and their own personal agenda first and education second and the state's welfare second. The best interest of the children who go here to school in North Carolina second -- all behind their own political, partisan interests," he said.
-State Lottery Issue Still Remains In House Limbo; 7/16/02 WRAL-TV

"As I visit public schools, I am struck by the number of trailers being used as classrooms," Easley said. "Far too many of our local governments are financially strapped. It is time for the state to help with school construction again. We need a new source of revenue to support a state investment in school facilities."
-Split house could hamper Easley’s plea for lottery; 3/5/03 Winston-Salem Journal

'When you are sitting here this year, struggling with the budget, just remember that your colleagues in 39 other states have a revenue source that you do not have. That makes it more difficult for you to improve education and keep taxes down,' he told the legislators.
'Now I heard you loud and clear last year that you do not want a lottery in the budget,' he told the legislators in March. 'But now you hear me - and a strong majority of North Carolinians - loud and clear. We want to keep North Carolina education money in North Carolina.
'Because next year another 100,000 5-year-olds are going to show up at the schoolhouse door. They deserve more than an overcrowded classroom and an overworked, underpaid teacher - and you don't have the money to pay for it,' he said. 'If you think a lottery's regressive, try packing 30 kids in a classroom.'
-Hot Ticket to a Big Debate; 6/08/03 Winston-Salem Journal