A BETTER TUNE

It wasn’t that long ago that we were promised that the lottery would help fund education to the tune of $300 million per year. Now the system is expected to generate only $70 million. It has been claimed that buying lottery tickets will help local schools — but a CBS News investigation found it just isn't true. Of 24 states that dedicate lottery funds for education, it turns out spending on schools is down or flat in 21 of them. 

Recently there was a proposal to divert some of the funds from education and use that money to help promote the lottery. Lottery Commission officials have been arguing for the diversion since last March. State Rep. Chris Benge, a Tulsa Republican who chairs the House Appropriations and Budget Committee, was quoted as saying, "The voters of Oklahoma were told lottery profits would go to our schools and any effort to divert that money is a violation of the voter's trust". There seems to be a constant rule about lotteries; the first year or two the money did go toward education, but then more urgent needs come up in the budget and that money was suddenly transferred into the general fund or to other funds.

While the lottery is not producing the revenues promised, the one real winner is the director of the lottery commission. The director receives a base salary of $175,000 per year, and also received a $25,000 bonus for the launch of lottery tickets sales and another $25,000 bonus when online ticket sales began. The program approved by Oklahoma voters requires that education programs receive 30 percent of lottery proceeds during the first two years of operation and 35 percent in all subsequent years. However, lottery officials have said lawmakers should repeal the law giving 35 percent of lottery funds to
education and instead divert a large share of that cash to pay for commission staff and slightly increase payout on scratch-off tickets Oklahoma law already requires that at least 45 percent of lottery revenue be used for prizes with another 20 percent designated for administrative costs.