NC lottery

BIGWOODY said:
on the upside, my cousin won the lottery 10 years or so ago to the tune of 7.3 million cash payout after taxes, he retired at 36. Told me he had only bought a dozen or so tickets in his life. :D
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Yeah, and if you hit one of these for hundreds of millions, it won't matter a hell of a lot how much less a one-time cash payout would be. Even Donald Trump would have trouble blowing that much loot. :lol:
 
SHINTON said:
the megaball type will eventually show up but years down the road
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Funny how that one little "s" can change the meaning of a sentence so dramatically.

Sam, the argument that we shouldn't have a lottery because it will take time to set one up is disingenuous at best.

As for money, the pre-K program and some school construction projects are already being funded with (future) lottery money. There wasn't money to allot for school construction in the first place, so how exactly do you expect the county to underfund it now that it has lottery money?

Come on, aren't you an accountant? Of the 35% allotted (by law) to fund school programs, 50% is mandated to fund a pre-K program (for which there was no funding previously), 40% goes to fund school construction (for which there was little to no funding previously, particularly for the poorest counties) and 10% goes to fund college scholarships, which is hardly taking money away from K-12 kids.
 
Okay, seriously. Let's just say for the sake of argument that if the lottery money DOES go to schools, and then state money gets taken away from schools, maybe they can use it for the roads instead. Or for some of several other things this state hasn't been able to afford. Nothing says it'll go into somebody's pet pork.

IF it does, then THAT's the time to vote out whoever's pork it was.
 
amazing what we donate to. we won't give a bum a dollar, or barely throw change in the salvation army tin at x-mas time, but give us a 1 in 1,000,xxx... chance to hit it big and we're there with greenbacks in hand. i say fuck the lottery, if you want to give money to support education, why not give money to support education,., :mad:
 
saf-t scissors said:
Funny how that one little "s" can change the meaning of a sentence so dramatically.

Sam, the argument that we shouldn't have a lottery because it will take time to set one up is disingenuous at best.

As for money, the pre-K program and some school construction projects are already being funded with (future) lottery money. There wasn't money to allot for school construction in the first place, so how exactly do you expect the county to underfund it now that it has lottery money?

Come on, aren't you an accountant? Of the 35% allotted (by law) to fund school programs, 50% is mandated to fund a pre-K program (for which there was no funding previously), 40% goes to fund school construction (for which there was little to no funding previously, particularly for the poorest counties) and 10% goes to fund college scholarships, which is hardly taking money away from K-12 kids.
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It is BECAUSE I am an accountant I am worried Shawn...I KNOW how to move the money and make it fit....and so does congress. Again...you don't have to take my word for it...look at almost ANY "education" lottery in the USA. As Galen mentioned Florida is a textbook example of good intentions and bad results.

Every time we say "almost" had no funding before...betcha what it did have goes down...

Guilford County (and almost every other one in NC) passes 'school bonds' all the time to build new schools. NOW, instead of passing those bonds and thus USING THEIR BUDGET to pay for those bonds...they will reallocate that cash to....?

Because the lottery will pay for those schools..so the counties will then redirect cash to other places and if you look at the number of school bonds in NC..that is a STAGGERING amount of money that will now be paid by the lottery...THUS...a STAGGERING amount of money the counties will do other things with...(usually non school related in the long term)

Again...yes I am a CPA, that is why I "know" it won't work, they will find other ways around it, "building the schools" is actually a great example of this. You said 40% of this goes to school construction...that means 40% of this is already guaranteed to get re-approapriated at the county level from paying (and passing) new school bonds...and paying other things.

EDIT to add below from History of Education in NC

"In 1996, voters in North Carolina approved a $1.8 billion bond referendum to provide state funds to assist local school districts with school construction costs"

So...there is 1.8 billion they funded WITHOUT a lottery...for school construction

Sam
 
Sam, bond referenda only work if the county is capable of repaying the bond.

Bond referenda are essentially the only way of financing school construction and renovation projects in NC.

Continuing to depend on locally-financed bonds to fund school construction only ensures that only the wealthiest counties have money to fund construction and renovation projects.

So basically, we vote down the lottery because poor (uneducated/incapable of making their own decisions/need the gubmint to look out for them) people will be victimized. In turn, the poorest counties don't have money to build schools to educate their children.

Brilliant. And demeaning to boot.
 
saf-t scissors said:
Sam, bond referenda only work if the county is capable of repaying the bond.

Bond referenda are essentially the only way of financing school construction and renovation projects in NC.

Continuing to depend on locally-financed bonds to fund school construction only ensures that only the wealthiest counties have money to fund construction and renovation projects.

So basically, we vote down the lottery because poor (uneducated/incapable of making their own decisions/need the gubmint to look out for them) people will be victimized. In turn, the poorest counties don't have money to build schools to educate their children.

Brilliant. And demeaning to boot.
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Shawn, I respectfully disagree...here is a list of the programs offered for the counties in NC to help with school construction.

The $1.8 billion N.C. Public School Building Bond Act of 1996, Since 1997, 937 school projects (155 new schools and 782 additions and/or renovations to existing schools) were supported by state bond funds ($1.39 billion local funds, $3.19 billion total

Public School Building Capital Fund (ADM fund) , The ADM fund uses part of the corporate income tax revenues (about 7.25 percent) to provide counties with an allotment based on average daily student membership. Over $812 million has been allotted since 1987

The Critical School Facility Needs Fund, established in 1987, awarded $95.5 million in 1988 and $10 million per year afterward from the corporate income tax to districts with the most limited ability to address critical building needs. After 2004, this fund will be included in the ADM Fund. Sixty school systems received $259 million from this fund.

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/state_board/annualrpt/02-04/14eeo.html

"WE" the public vote down the lottery...WE...the public...every single time in NC...probably because WE...don't trust our politicians! :D

And yes...educated and capable folks...do have the responsibility for the uneducated and incapable

(And no I am not getting mad, bent of shape or anything of the like...Shawn and I can disagree and still be friends and wheel together...and debate is GOOD for the brain)

Sam
 
so theoretically speaking, if the lottery gets passed and *does* raise money for schools....shouldnt the school tax that I pay on get adjusted or do they just keep that too. I dont even have kids...they need to build more jails cause the schools now only produce criminals.
 
sloop said:
I think the lottery is dumb.. our state laws outlaw gambling, but now there is an exception for the state-run lottery. Gambling should be legal, not exploited by our state government.
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I disagree The money is going to the state, and since we where live is a democracy, we are the state every one will benift from it. Unless you are Idiot and spend you all your money on it.

Now casinos are a different story they are businesses and they make them selves rich off of the stupidity of others. Sure I like to go gamble sometimes, but I only gamble what i am willing to loose and I am fine with that.

Now most of use here on this board Gamble all of the time we spend countless dollars on our rigs with the hope that they will not break again, and the only time you win at this gamble is if you don't break and are able to sell you trail spares to some one on the trail and make a few $$
 
I disagree with the lottery. If you look at the states that have had them for a while, the first few years, lots of dollars are raked in. After that it tapers off. That and most people balk at raising school budgets, "they have the lottery, so we don't need to raise the budget" mentality. CA's school system is hurting and they've had one for years. Most school systems suffer more from a lottery. That and I have a big problem handing more money to a bunch of politicians who haven't been very fiscally responsible in the past. I've also heard, but have not verified that there is nothing in the bill preventing them from decreasing the school budget, and no guarantee in the bill that it will go to education, they could pull it at anytime they felt like. But this is hearsay, not verified. I still think it was a bad idea, and not for moral issues. I will probably buy a quick pick every once in a while.

Just an after thought, if all our political discussions would go this well, meaning no name calling and such, they probably wouldn't get deleted.
 
Rob said:
I've also heard, but have not verified that there is nothing in the bill preventing them from decreasing the school budget, and no guarantee in the bill that it will go to education, they could pull it at anytime they felt like. But this is hearsay, not verified.
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Actually that's the one point that held it up for so long, the last few hold-outs wouldn't let it through w/o some protectiosn provisions.
They set iy up so that a specific % of the proceeds (cannot remember exact value) MUST go into a svaings fund that cannot be touched for the current or upcoming year. This set aside to gain interest in a trust, to garantee that that there will always be $$ there, and this feeds directly into the education budget. That way, there is ganateed $$ that cannot be taken later.
Easley said something clever - "I'm not worried about anybody from the current congress decreasing money for our schools; thsi protects the schools from congress in the future."

Oh and a lottery isn't a tax on the poor.
The lottery is a tax on the statistically challenged.
It turns out that that being bad a math tends to make you poor. :smokin:
 
Kevin Lawler said:
We live in a representative republic, not a democracy.
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In this case, we got what what we wanted. NC residents favored the lottery something like 2-1.

I have to disagree with the line of thinking that it's a tax on those who are bad at math. It's entertainment. You spend a few bucks on lottery tickets and daydream about what you'd do if you won. For your average Joe who buys a few tickets it's cheaper entertainment than eating at a restaurant or buying a bucket of popcorn at the movies. Sure, if you measure it as a retirement plan, or a mutual fund, the lottey sucks. But, that isn't logical. The lottery is way cheaper than 4x4ing. Talk about pissing money away. :) For what? To get over a rock? Why not just walk around?

(Edited. I can't spell but I'm good at math.)
 
The lottery is way cheaper than 4x4ing. Talk about pissing money away. :) For what? To get over a rock? Why not just walk around?
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Hahahaha. That made me laugh.
 
I know I won't be changing who I vote for in the next election because of the lottery...

There are a LOT of other decisions that fall MUCH higher on my list when choosing who to vote for...

not to say you (or I) shouldn't at least let our representative know how we feel...just that this topic won't be the deal-breaker for me...

Greg
 
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