Panel Kills Bid to Force Those on Welfare to Repay State From Lottery Jackpots

A bill that would force lottery winners on welfare to cough up part of their jackpots died Wednesday after a hearing before a committee of skeptical state senators.

Presenting his bill (SB 374) to the Health and Human Services Committee, Sen. Tim Leslie (R-Carnelian Bay) called it an ideal way to combat the “inappropriate use of public funds for gambling.”

But the committee’s chairwoman, Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), and other Democrats complained that the proposal unfairly singles out welfare recipients.

“It discriminates,” Watson said. “If we’re going to require this of one group, we ought to require it of all groups that receive government assistance.”

Watson and two other senators suggested that the bill be amended to cover everyone from business owners who receive tax breaks to farmers who get subsidized water and even flood victims who receive emergency aid.

Leslie called such suggestions “nonsense” and a “blatant attempt to kill the bill.”

“How could you ever calculate that? It’s impossible,” Leslie said.

The bill needed five votes for approval, but received only two. Leslie said he planned to bring it back for reconsideration when more Republican senators are on hand.

The bill--modeled after a law adopted by New York--seeks to force lottery winners on public assistance to give up to half their jackpots to repay aid they have received from the state over the past 10 years.

It would apply to any jackpot over $600 and cover all types of public assistance, including that paid to the blind, elderly and disabled.

Leslie said his ultimate preference would be to prohibit welfare recipients from playing the lottery, and several senators at Wednesday’s hearing endorsed that idea. But that approach was tried in the mid-1980s with a bill that died because it was considered unenforceable.

Because welfare rolls are confidential, lottery officials cannot say how many aid recipients have been winners. In one publicized case, a 1985 winner revealed that he had bought a lottery ticket with his welfare check, winning $2 million.