Posted on 04/20/2004 7:07:58 AM PDT by TaxRelief
ROANOKE RAPIDS, NC - Since February, the Roanoke Rapids School Board has been talking about endorsing a state-operated lottery for education. The Board will be meeting this Tuesday, April 20 at 8:00 p.m. and this matter is on the agenda. It is imperative School Board members be inundated with contacts via telephone calls and emails beforehand. As many people as possible should also attend the meeting to express their opposition to such an endorsement.
Here are a few good talking points that express reasons why a state- operated lottery would not help education in North Carolina:
States without lotteries actually spend a greater percentage of their budget on education. Lotteries are often promoted as a way to boost school funding. More than half of all State lotteries earmark lottery revenues for education. (The North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) online, Fast Facts, "Beneficiaries," 30 June 2001, (7 July 2003)) However, a study by Money Magazine discovered that states without lotteries actually spend a greater percentage of their budget on education. Moreover, since 1990, spending devoted to education has actually decreased in lottery states, while increasing in non-lottery states during the same period. (Peter Keating, "Lotto Fever: We All Lose!" Money, May 1996, pp. 144, 147) After studying Lottery-aided educational funding, two St. Mary’s College (Notre Dame, Ind.) professors concluded: "Regardless of when or where the lottery operated, education spending declined once a state put a lottery into effect…This study indicates that states without lotteries actually maintain and increase their education spending more so than states with lotteries…Hence, citizens should recognize that claims that lotteries will improve education funding are likely to be as misleading as their odds of winning those lotteries are meager." (Donald E. Miller and Patrick A. Pierce, "Lotteries for Education: Windfall or Hoax?" State and Local Government Review, Winter 1997, pp. 40-41)
State lotteries are an empty promise for education. Florida and New York, among a number of other states, have both experienced the fallout of false "educational funding" promises. "We can’t help but be reminded of the disappointment of the lottery itself [Florida lottery], which observed its 15th anniversary this month [January 2003]," the Lakeland Ledger reported in Florida. "[T]he lottery was sold to voters as a means of bolstering existing education funding. In the end, lamentably, lawmakers used the lottery windfall to supplant education tax dollars that were siphoned off into other programs and agencies. The result? Today, education funding continues to be inadequate and one of the big reasons lawmakers are ballyhooing the benefits of video gambling." (The Ledger (Lakeland, FL), "More Gambling Is Not the Answer," January 21, 2003, Tuesday, News, Pg. A10) In New York, the State Comptroller’s report reads, "By dedicating it [New York lottery proceeds] to education, there is an implied promise that the lottery will increase school aid…This has never happened in New York…Lottery money has never supplemented state aid; it doesn’t today and it likely never will…In New York, as in many other states, lottery earnings have been earmarked for education primarily as a public relations device. The opposition that arises from the use of gambling proceeds to fund government services is deflected by pointing to the worthy purpose that the lottery funds are supposed to support." (Sandra M. Shapard, "The New York Lottery Role in Financing Education," New York State Comptrollers’s Office of Fiscal Research and Policy Analysis Deputy Comptroller, April 1998. 6 May 2003)
State lotteries degrade the morals of youth and produce gambling addictions among them. Lotteries work against state character education initiatives. A Harvard University professor writes: "With states hooked on (lottery) money, they have no choice but to continue to bombard their citizens, especially the most vulnerable ones, with a message at odds with the ethic of work, sacrifice, and moral responsibility that sustains democratic life." (Michael Sandel, "The Hard Questions: Bad Bet," New Republic, March 10, 1997, p.27.) Furthermore, in 1997, Georgia H.O.P.E Scholarships were given to 392,764 citizens [from lottery proceeds]; however, nearly 17,700 Georgia adolescents experienced severe problems with gambling addiction, while an additional 39,100 to 56,800 adolescents in Georgia were at risk for developing gambling related problems. (Rachel A. Volberg, Gemini Research, report to the Georgia Department of Human Services, June 25, 1996)
Not enough revenues are being lost to neighboring states with lotteries to justify a state-operated lottery in North Carolina. "Keeping in perspective the amount of money a lottery would generate diffuses the argument that a lottery is needed to stem the tide of money going to other states. Lottery proponents claim that hundreds of millions of dollars that could benefit education are being lost to surrounding states. This assertion is not true, however, because those states only keep a third of every dollar spent on lottery tickets to fund their education programs. Lottery advocates are misleading the public when they talk about gross dollars spent on tickets, not the net dollars kept by the states. This means that if North Carolinians spend approximately $250 million in surrounding states, as has been reported, the estimated revenues taken in by those states is around $82.5 million, which is less than one percent of North Carolina’s education budget. Tar Heel players win back half the money they gamble in other state lotteries, because fifty cents of every dollar is returned in prizes." (A Lottery Education: Dispelling the Education Lottery Myth, Steven Daniels, North Carolina Family Policy Council)
Roanoke Rapids Votes Down LotteryPOSTED: 5:50 pm EDT April 20, 2004
UPDATED: 11:50 pm EDT April 20, 2004ROANOKE RAPIDS, N.C. -- The Roanoke Rapids School board on Tuesday night defeated a resolution to support a state-run lottery.
The board was tied 4-4 on the issue. But, the chairman voted against the resolution, defeating the measure for now.
Nevertheless, some board members hope their meeting will push state lawmakers to approve a state lottery benefiting schools.... (excerpt)
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