RICHMOND -- Virginia lawmakers are no longer allowed to toss lottery revenues into the state's main spending pot, Virginia Attorney General Robert McDonnell has informed them.

McDonnell's advisory opinion #08-024, delivered in response a question from Lt. Gov. and fellow-Republican William Bolling, calls the practice unconstitutional. Bolling last month tried unsuccessfully to block the Senate's Democratic majority from including lottery revenue in the budget it was trying to pass.

McDonnell wrote Bolling last week that the state's constitution mandates a Lottery Proceeds Fund (LPF) that sends money directly to local entities "to be expended for the purposes of public education." The constitutional amendment was written in July 2001.

Only a 'super-majority' vote of 80 percent can override such mandate, the AG added. "Absent an affirmative vote of four-fifths of the members voting in each house, any budget/appropriation item diverting lottery funds would be unconstitutional," McDonnell concluded.

The lottery raises more than $400 million for the Virginia state school system, reports note. Recently this LPF revenue, instead of being parceled out to local school authorities directly, has been poured into general revenue and then handed out to the districts.

McDonnell's opinion could now bolster Bolling's future insistence on enforcing the 80 percent supermajority requirement if lawmakers again try to snatch LPF money.