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Have you ever bought a lottery scratch ticket or tried your hand at video poker? Did you ever think about where the money you put into these games ends up? Lottery brings in an increasing amount of dollars to Oregon and it pays for a lot of different things. Most of the money goes to fund education or state parks. Smaller amounts of lottery profits also goes to economic development, college athletics, gambling addiction resources and county fairs. An initiative on the November ballot would commit 15 percent of Oregon lottery profits to public safety. Backers of Measure 62 say the money is needed to help stabilize funding for state police investigations, aid to at-risk children and county law enforcement.
The Register-Guard estimates Measure 62 would result in $439 million for public safety over four years. Opponents of the measure argue that diverting funds away from parks and schools is a bad idea. According to the state budget office, the 15 percent of lottery funds allocated for parks and natural resources as well as the 18 percent that goes to the Education Stability Fund is untouchable, and won't be affected by Measure 62. The proposed allotment of lottery dollars for public safety would have to come from $778 million in discretionary funds, a large chunk of which goes to K-12 education.
Are you supporting Measure 62? Why or why not? What facts and figures do you need to help you make up your mind? How do you think the lottery pie should be divided?
Photo credit: Aine D / Flickr / Creative Commons
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"Lottery brings in an increasing amount of dollars to Oregon and it pays for a lot of different things."
Yeah, it's a perpetual motion machine, it manufactures no product and provides no service, it is the ultimate economic engine of the future, all you have to do is buy a ticket with the money you won from the last ticket you bought and everything is just tickety-boo. No work, no pay, no problems.
(start evil laugh)
Bwha Ha ha ha ha ha hah hah ha!
(/end evil laugh) -
If anything should get more funding from lottery dollars, it should be gambling addiction services. I sure hope if this passes that no money is allocated to the Silverton Police Department. They already have more cops then a 9,000 people town should ever have, and horrible cops at that. I hope this bill dies. As for facts and figures, look at all of the school districts that are on the verge of collapse due to financial woes.
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The entire lottery revenue stream is corrupt... I agree with Tom D Ford, and I think that letting our poorest residents think they have the chance to get something for nothing is not a great idea. No one in my family in Oregon "plays the lottery." We all know that it's just a waste of money. We're all lower-middle class and we work hard to earn our money and don't want to throw it away.
On the one hand, I think it's great that the money goes to support education and beautiful state parks. But on the other hand, I think we should come up with more traditional funding mechanisms for these vital programs. Same deal when it comes to the funding of law enforcement. We need to come up with better revenue streams than taking advantage of people who are throwing away their money instead of saving it. How about stopping the ridiculous corporate tax breaks that our state gives out?
http://www.ocpp.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?page=es050520dodge -
But in the meantime, where should lottery proceeds go?
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Oregon's education system needs serious help. I know first-grade teachers with up to 30 students in their classrooms. Any diversion of money from this "bucket" is a bad idea (jut as Rev. Chuck Currie says).
However, I'd be in favor of raising corporate income tax contributions and eliminating the lottery... We need to stop relying on this source of revenue. -
". . . letting our poorest residents think they have the chance to get something for nothing is not a great idea." do you seriously think they're the only ones who play the lottery? Is it that bad to have a dream? I'm hardly poor, but I still play every week. someone's going to win. It might as well be me.
Lottery funds go to support good things, but I am as yet undecided on this measure. -
You may be an exception -- research has shown that poor people play the lottery the most and spend the largest percentage of their income on the lottery (instead of on retirement savings).
"The hope of getting out of poverty encourages people to continue to buy tickets, even though their chances of stumbling upon a life-changing windfall are nearly impossibly slim and buying lottery tickets in fact exacerbates the very poverty that purchasers are hoping to escape." (From: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080724102945.htm).
"Predominantly African American or Latino, low-income Chicago communities have generated the highest lottery sales in the state, shows an analysis of Illinois Lottery records since 1997 by The Chicago Reporter." (From: http://www.chicagoreporter.com/index.php/c/Cover_Stories/d/Illinois_Lottery:_The_Poor_Play_More) -
As a member of the public policy committee of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon (EM0), the state-wide Christian association, I pleased to note that has voted to recommend a ?NO? vote on Measure 63 for the following reason: ?This measure would significantly reduce funding available for education, economic development and natural resource programs. This is a shell game that creates no new revenue for badly underfunded programs, but simply writes into the state constitution a permanent preference for funding for law enforcement over funding for education, economic development and environmental protection.?
The Rev. Chuck Currie
Parkrose Community United Church of Christ -
And more broadly: how much of our budget should be allocated by mandate, as opposed to legislative discretion?
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I would like to know what the percentage is that goes to the bar owners. That would help people understand that a lot of the money is not 'profit' and the bar owners get $$$$
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My concern is that using lottery funds to fund law enforcement will entrench and broaden the interest in sustaining and even increasing lottery revenues. Selling scratch tickets in the convenience store is one thing but enabling and advocating video poker in bars preys on people when their decision making capacity is weakest. If we feel that schools, parks and law enforcement are worth funding then let's increase legitimate taxes in other areas and not stoop to the tactics of sleazy casino operators to fund public services.
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I know as well as anyone that public safety needs a source of stable funding -- my husband works for the State Police and was laid off when I was seven months pregnant (he was later hired back). But, as a mother, I object to any loss of education funding because sadly education is underfunded as it is. If this measure passes, how will the education funding be effected exactly?
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Both public safety and schools are part of the responsibilities of the state government. They should receive adequate funding from the budget, but neither are receiving enough money from this budget. I am a recent graduate of Oregon's k-12 public schools and one of our public universities, and throughout my schooling, the schools were run on a shoestring budget. My teachers did a good job, but they had to make do with what they had. If measure 62 results in less funding for schools, it would be an irresponsible move.
Lottery funds are nice, but the essential functions of our state government in schools and public safety should not have to rely on it.
I hope opponents of tax increases realize that they can't just have their cake and eat it too by making lottery gamers responsible for the essential services of government.
-Nate -
Another bad idea brought to you by Kevin Mannix and Loren Parks! Mannix's obsession with law enforcement and criminal justice measures which gut funding for education and other important services for our citizens demonstrates just how single-minded and myopic he is.
Two-thirds of lottery funds now go to education. This measure would take $159 million from an educational system already teetering on the edge; resulting in cuts to other needs and more cuts to teachers, books, and school repairs. This measure would limit our flexibility to use lottery funds as needed and seriously undermine public education.
Oregon cannot afford to devastate our educational system in this way! -
Mannix's current comments (9:54) made me want to reply again... You should NOT anticipate that the state will provide inadequate funds for essential services from the general fund. Mannix's plan goes in the opposite direction of what we need.
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The Lottery is a regressive tax that resulted from our years of descent into Conservatism. We need to return to progressive taxes, to Liberal economics.
This Bill looks like a continuation of Conservative attacks on our public schools, they attack Public Education as socialism and so they are always on the attack.
Sixty Two just won't do! -
Dudes like Kevin Mannix scare me.
Much like the David Vitters & Larry Craigs of the world vote 'family first' all the time (hiding their true colors), I wonder what cleptomainiac lurks beneath the surface of Mannix.
That Fred Phelps guy in Kansas is one of those dudes as well (look him up) -
Since Lottery is a variable source of revenue, it should only be used for expenditures that are opportunistic such as infrastructure. Lotteries are a really a tax for the poor and while legal are unfortuanate. But since it is legal, let's not have our staple programs such as schols and saftey depend on this form of revenue. The parks? OK BUt how about bridges, roads etc.
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I agree with one aspect of the Mannix-Parks idea that the criminal justice segment of our budget needs strengthening. But that's something we Oregonians should be paying for in a more progressing way - maybe by those much maligned income taxes. By depending on lottery funds, we move the responsibility to those who choose to gamble, often the folks on the low end of the income scale. (The same is true for education funding, but we can't put that egg back together). The bottom line we should not be living on the hope that all those people who spend their money on lottery tickets will never get wake up from the dream of winning the big one. Too bad those smart fellows (Mannix and Park) don't spend their energy on finding truly equitable forms of funding for all the very important things our state government does for us.
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Concerning the lottery, there is often a discussion about its fostering gambling addiction in individuals. However, there is NEVER a discussion about the consequent State's gambling addiction! Frankly, it is the height of fiscal irresponsibility to use gambling of any kind as part of a Financial Plan - be that personal or societal.
In short, how irresponsible would I be were I to base by personal spending on my anticipated lottery winnings?
No, the Lottery allows the State Government and Oregon's citizens to be fiscally undisciplined and utterly bereft of any responsibility when it comes to making hard decisions about how to raise money (taxes) and how to spend such money. After all, as your guest commented, the economists say Lottery Gambling is just "entertainment". -
Good points!
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How much of lottery funds go to gambling addition services? I am a recovering addict and have used the state funded services. They left much to be desired. I had to go to a group therapy session on my first visit because there were not enough people. The facility was run down and dirty. It was not ideal. Have we done any thinking around the affects that gambling has on our society? When will we increase the funds for gambling addiction which is a direct result of the lottery?
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You can't rely on continuing increases in the lottery for maintaining education funding. Schools need adequate funding, and public safety does too, but money must be spent well.
Mandatory minimum sentencing is an unwise use of money that could be better spent on actually prosecuting crimes that currently have been ignored because of inadequate funds (I'm in Lane county, and our County Sheriffs and DA's are quite underfunded). Fix the tax problems that are leaving these budgets inadequate and you don't need to dip into school funding to pay for them. -
Given that this is a very broad question/statement...would we rather solve crime or prevent it? If prevention is preferred; then education should be the overwhelming priority.
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Conservative Republicans make a lot of money with the Prison and Police systems, building and running prisons, manufacturing and selling Police equipment, and of course maintaining what looks like a fearsome Police State.
We can look at other more progressive countries and see that well educated kids and progressive economic policies result in less crime and so less need for huge budgets against crime. -
Education is the greatest deterrent of crime. Providing our children with a broader and more inclusive educational curriculum, supplemented with extracurricular activities such as sports, music, and art programs, all of which have suffered greatly in the past few decades. Increasing the level of law enforcement will only contribute to the "perpetual motion machine" of criminal incarceration and recidivism. Keep our money in education, and perhaps re-education of the existing incarcerated population!
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The Lottery is essentially a poor tax. How appropriate, then, that we would have a measure to reinforce funding for the mechanism by which that segment of the population is disproportionately imprisoned. I also note no discussion of whether public safety in Oregon is actually low or actually needs such funding. This sort of myopia and unsubstantiated hysteria seems to pervade any discussion of police funding issues.
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Measure 62:
I have been involved in formal research on both the Initiative process and the current measures.
The issue here is not the cause that's being discussed, as with the parks, it's a good one. The issue is that Oregon's budget is a zero sum game. Oregonians have shown little or no inclination to increase tax revenues. Yes, the budget grew this year, but it is about to shrink next year. The same holds for both tax and lottery revenue. The simple truth is that since we cannot guarantee revenues of any sort, we should not compel expenditures of any sort. And, it makes no sense to embed any expenditure in the constitution which is even more difficult to change.
It's not the cause, it's the cost. Give money to one cause, another loses. -
Allowing a lottery to operate is a subliminal taxation of the poorest population. It is the gross distortion and manipulation of the foretold "American Dream", and it robs low income and destitute families of money that they could really use to attain their dreams. Measure 62 will be stealing manipulating money from the poor only to turn around and lock them up!
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This business of Mannix being anti-crime is just a distraction from the real crime which is the massive redistribution of wealth from the lower classes to the already wealthy by Conservative Republicans manipulating laws in the legislature. And that redistribution is the cause of minor crimes, the cause of undereducated kids, the cause of underfunded health care.
We need to get back to regulated markets and fair distribution of wealth through progressive taxes. -
What about the fact that budgets for police and law enforcement are going to be strained because of the gas increases that incurred this year and most likely next year? There will need to be a major increase in the budget to cover their inflation on necessities required to keep our current standards of police agencies.
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Shorting the education budget, to increase the police budget or for any other reason, guarantees that crime rates will rise in the long-term. Kids who finish high school are less likely to commit crimes. If we want to prevent crime we must fund education. Measure 62 is a bad idea.
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Did I hear Kevin Mannix claim that Measure 62 will help correct the problems caused by property tax limitations? Weren't these limitation incorporated in the state constitution through a previous ballot measure?
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No on 62. Don't need any facts or figures - Mannix is behind this >:)
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Comments are now closed.
I just don't get it. If part of the lottery funds are going to the schools, why are they cutting back? Why don't they put the arts back in the school's corriculums? ........and Senior Services; why are they hurting as well? Come on guys. Let the money work.