House Panel Approves Special Lottery Fund Idea
Legislation that would place lottery funds into a special account so taxpayers know exactly how much lottery cash goes to their local schools was approved today by a House committee.
House Bill 1441, by Rep. Gary Banz, would create a special Common Education Lottery Revolving Fund to collect and distribute lottery funds every six months.
"The way we handle lottery money today is a risky business," said Banz, R-Midwest City. "Currently, we try to predict how much money the lottery will make each year and pre-spend it, building it into school budgets. For the past two years, the lottery has failed to meet those projections and schools faced mid-year budget cuts as a result. We need to allow the lottery to first produce and then distribute the money. We're doing it backwards right now."
In the current system, lottery funds are run through the state school funding formula along with all other education money, which makes it very difficult to determine how much each individual school district receives from the lottery. In addition, some schools will receive no lottery money at all so long as it is run through the state funding formula.
In addition, lottery projections have been very inaccurate. In the 2007 budget year, the lottery shortfall was more than $40 million and this year's numbers are below projections once again.
Under House Bill 1441, lottery money would be collected in the Common Education Lottery Revolving Fund and distributed to schools every six months divided on a per-student basis.
House Bill 1441, by Rep. Gary Banz, would create a special Common Education Lottery Revolving Fund to collect and distribute lottery funds every six months.
"The way we handle lottery money today is a risky business," said Banz, R-Midwest City. "Currently, we try to predict how much money the lottery will make each year and pre-spend it, building it into school budgets. For the past two years, the lottery has failed to meet those projections and schools faced mid-year budget cuts as a result. We need to allow the lottery to first produce and then distribute the money. We're doing it backwards right now."
In the current system, lottery funds are run through the state school funding formula along with all other education money, which makes it very difficult to determine how much each individual school district receives from the lottery. In addition, some schools will receive no lottery money at all so long as it is run through the state funding formula.
In addition, lottery projections have been very inaccurate. In the 2007 budget year, the lottery shortfall was more than $40 million and this year's numbers are below projections once again.
Under House Bill 1441, lottery money would be collected in the Common Education Lottery Revolving Fund and distributed to schools every six months divided on a per-student basis.
posted by Mike McCarville @ 3:27 PM
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