“I am the only candidate with a plan to deal with the impending crisis in Medicaid. My proposal to regulate and tax casino gambling in Alabama will protect those in our state who can least afford medical care. As I’ve shown before, based on data from the state of Mississippi, developing casino gambling as a revenue source will stabilize Medicaid in Alabama.”







Many of Ron Sparks’ policy ideas involve tax revenue from gambling. On his website, he states Alabama could stabilize Medicaid by taxing casinos and points to Mississippi as a success story for this strategy.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine how much of Mississippi’s Medicaid funds come from gaming taxes. The majority of its Medicaid funds come from the federal government, and the state’s general funds normally make up less than 10 percent of its Medicaid budget. However, according to representatives with the Sparks claim, Sparks plans to tax Alabama gaming at a much higher rate than Mississippi.







“That is specious,” said Francis Rullan, public relations officer with Mississippi Division of Medicaid, about Sparks’ strategy. “I would love to see that data. Nothing has stabilized Medicaid in Mississippi.”

Rullan said Sparks’ statement was unfair because many unknown variables affect Medicaid. Because of factors such as the economy, the cost of healthcare and the unknown number of beneficiaries, the division never knows how much money it will need each year, he said.

“Given all those factors how can you say the program can be stabilized with any one specific type of cash influx?” he said.

It is difficult to know with any level of precision how much of Mississippi’s Medicaid fund comes from gaming taxes. The state taxes its casinos at a rate of 11.2 percent. Around one third of that money goes to local communities, and the rest is placed into the state’s general fund.

In the current fiscal year, the state expected that amount to be $162 million. Meanwhile, the planned to give Mississippi Medicaid $255 million from the state general fund.

In the state's 2010 budget, gaming taxes are projected to make up 3 percent of Mississippi’s general fund, compared to 39 percent from sales tax or 31 percent from income tax.

Projections for the fiscal year 2011 have the state’s general fund making up 10 percent of Medicaid’s money. In 2007, that number was around 3 percent. The majority of Mississippi’s Medicaid funding comes from the federal government. In 2007, federal dollars made up 73 percent of the state’s Medicaid budget.

Taylor Bright, spokesman for the Sparks campaign, said Sparks plans to tax Alabama casinos at a minimum rate of 25 percent. He said that would be around $780 million in tax revenue.

When asked about Alabama’s gambling infrastructure when compared to Mississippi, Bright said Alabama is obviously lower, but it is not out of the question that Alabama could get to the point Mississippi is at.

Bright said Sparks also plans to earmark a third of the gambling tax money for Medicaid, which would be around $260 million.

If Alabama used the $260 million from Sparks’ estimate, that amount would be 5 percent of Alabama Medicaid’s 2010 total budget and 20 percent of the state's portion of the budget.