Having tried nearly every way to provide public services without paying for them---borrowing, fund transfers, smoke and mirrors---Alabama now faces a looming deficit in the state operating budget. The birds are coming home to roost.

Governor Bentley has proposed a $541 million tax increase, but many Alabamians would sooner lose a limb than pay more in taxes, so Bentley’s proposal faces an uncertain fate in the legislature now in session.

How about a lottery and casinos to raise money for the state? Alabama voters rejected that in 1999, but we’re in a worse financial mess now than we were then, so the idea has been revived. In 1999, Democrats promoted state-sponsored gambling while Republicans opposed it. But many Republicans have changed their minds. We may vote on it again soon.

I wrote a column for the Baldwin County newspapers in 1999 opposing the gambling proposal. I’d like to think my column swayed the electorate, but my wife says it was the opposition of the Southern Baptist Church that did it in.

I dug out that column yesterday. There’s nothing I’d change in it, so here it is again:

“If people elsewhere are sinking in quicksand or jumping over cliffs, somebody will say, ‘Let’s get in on the action!’

“Florida runs a state lottery and Mississippi allows casino gambling. Some people are now suggesting we legalize more forms of gambling in Alabama. They say that Alabamians wager millions of dollars each year in neighboring states, generating income for schools and other public services in those states. We could use the money for our own schools and public services, they say.

“Indeed we could. Our schools and public services lag behind those of other states, largely because we won’t fund them adequately. But gambling isn’t the answer.

“I know about sin (I’ve read about it), and gambling is not a sin. The Bible says nothing about gambling and if you’re making a list of things that endanger the fate of the soul, gambling would appear far down on it, below hundreds of other wicked things that churchgoers and heathens alike routinely wallow in.

“But while it’s not a sin, gambling is a moral issue because it is a potentially addictive behavior. Compulsive gambling resembles alcoholism. It starts off small and seemingly harmless until it eventually rules and ruins people’s lives, resulting in loss of job, family, friends, financial security, and self-respect.

“I don’t favor outlawing all gambling. We learned from Prohibition that outlawing alcohol doesn’t work. People who wanted to drink managed to do so despite Prohibition, and a criminal underworld emerged to provide liquor, an underworld that still thrives and now promotes other fatal addictions.

“But though I don’t favor banning alcohol, neither would I want the state of Alabama to promote it. It’s the same with gambling: the state shouldn’t ban it, but it shouldn’t promote it, either.

“Gambling also undermines the work ethic, which doesn’t need any further undermining. The American ideal which promises rewards for a hard day’s work would be replaced by one which promises (in most cases falsely) riches and fame as a result of chance.

“The work ethic has never worked perfectly in practice, and there will always be some people who receive more or less than they deserve. But it is a worthy ideal, and the government should not undermine it. There are other and better ways to raise revenue.

            “Gambling is also a notoriously regressive way to fund public services. Affluent people can easily afford to buy lottery tickets and play the slots. But by and large, they don’t. Those who do are primarily the jobless, the uneducated, the lonely, the isolated elderly, and impressionable youth.

“Public services financed by gambling revenues are therefore paid for by those who can least afford it. More sophisticated, urbane, and affluent people benefit from schools, roads, and correctional institutions, which their poor neighbors pay for with money they could have spent for food, clothing, shelter, and education.

“I favor raising additional revenue for the state of Alabama. We desperately need it. But let’s do it the decent and honorable way---by raising our taxes.”

Richard H. Schmidt is a retired Episcopal priest, editor and author who lives in Fairhope. He can be reached at courier@gulfcoastnewspapers.com.