Just a scam
The Independent Weekly nails down what lottery critics have said all along: Gambling revenue will simply replace money the state already is spending for education.
"Dan Gerlach, the governor's senior policy advisor for fiscal affairs, says it had been Gov. Easley's intention all along to replace some general fund money with lottery revenue," the Indy reports. " 'What the governor has said all along is that he never intended that the additional teachers needed to reduce class size and the More-at-Four program be funded through the general fund,' he says. 'The general money was fronted, kind of like an upfront loan.' "
What?
Pardon my language, but this is nothing but a damn scam.
Now the politicians can use the money previously spent on these school programs for something else.
Shame on the governor and shame on the legislative leaders who pushed this lottery through on false pretenses.
Comments (10)
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Shame on every newspaper in the state that fails to include that information on its front page (above the fold).
Posted on February 10, 2006 11:01 AM
Doug:
Having had the same conversation with Gerlach (and not having seen the I-Weekly article) I would add a little context. (If you want to be outraged by the lottery, fine be me, but let's do it for the right reasons.)
What Gerlach (and Easley) have said is they'd want the lottery proceeds to fund the pre-K and other stuff so they could plow state tax dollars into other education programs. So the lottery, if it gets up and running, would fund the pre-k stuff and tax dollars could be used for other education-related stuff, like raising teachers salaries. (I know, that's a whole other kettle of fish...)
Auditor Merrit got in this discussion with Easley's folks back in January (Stories about that here: http://blog.news-record.com/staff/capblog/archives/2006/01/no_accounting_f.html)
Merrit argues, perhaps rightly, that what Easley is doing might be straight-up and the right thing to do, but that the auditor's office (and by extension, the public) need more information in order to tell. Easley's folks say that all you need to watch is that over-all education spending continues to rise.
If you don't buy the "just-watch-overall-education-spending" argument, then outrage away.
Posted on February 10, 2006 11:55 AM
Still outraged, Mark.
There's no mechanism in place to make sure that happens. Easley's word for it counts for nothing. The governor doesn't pass the budget, and Easley won't be governor after January 2009 anyway. The money that was being spent for these education programs will be free for any other purpose the legislature approves.
Citizens who supported the lottery were led to believe the state was making a commitment to raising school spending, but that's a shaky promise.
Posted on February 10, 2006 12:23 PM
Yup...shaky is a good word for it....that's certainly how things turned out in most other states (our friends in GA excepted).
The betting among the chattering class up here has been that everyone will keep to the straight and narrow through the 2008-09 budget with lottery spending...and then all bets will be off.
Failing a constitutional amendment to safeguard spending (one that has real teeth), that's probably not a half-bad guess.
Posted on February 10, 2006 12:34 PM
Right on, Doug.
Just as the NC legislature has "borrowed" restricted funds from the Highway Trust account to fund general operating expenses, they and Easley will take from the Education Lottery to do as they please.
Throw the bums out.
Posted on February 10, 2006 1:26 PM
You bet, throw the bums out! Then turn around and replace them with another bunch of bums. Just wish they would declare Election Day a paid holiday so at least we could get someting out of the whole charade.
Posted on February 10, 2006 3:32 PM
Brenda,
Unfortunately, most legislative districts are rigged to favor the incumbent's party, so throwing the bums out is very difficult if not impossible.
Posted on February 11, 2006 9:51 AM
Doug, what is the status of the lawsuit that was brought by the group challenging the legality of the vote that was held to approve the lottery originally?
Posted on February 12, 2006 12:01 PM
Interested: That suit is, if I remember right, supposed to have its first hearing in front of a judge this week. (2/13)
Posted on February 12, 2006 9:24 PM
Thanks Mark, I'll keep my ears open for that.
Posted on February 13, 2006 7:23 AM