Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Alabama citizens deserve a lottery vote

  As the budget hearings began for the 2016 Alabama Legislative Session in January, the largest Powerball lottery sweepstakes in American history was playing out. It was one of the biggest news stories of the year.

  Legislators were hearing the same song, second verse, that they heard last year. The General Fund is about $200 million short. If the money is not found, we will lose $500 million in Medicaid federal matching dollars, most state highways will be without state troopers, and most counties - not just in the Black Belt - will be unable to grant or renew driver’s licenses. In addition, the federal courts will take over our prisons and more than likely release hundreds of convicts on the streets, and state employees will either be let go or have their take home pay cut again for the eighth straight year.