The Texas House Votes To Kill The Lottery - But Finally Cooler Heads Prevail

The Texas House had a moment of insanity yesterday. Led by freshmen Republican legislators, a motion to continue the Texas Lottery Commission was defeated in the House of Representatives (on a vote of 82 to 64). The shocking vote would have dismantled the state lottery.

House leaders, surprised by the move then scrambled to get the bill reconsidered. They had to remind the legislators that the lottery has provided some much needed funds to the state treasury, and in fact, at least $2 billion in lottery funds has already been written into the proposed state budget for the coming biennium. That money would have had to be replaced by some other means (taxes?) if the lottery was not continued.

Since 1997, the lottery has provided about $15 billion for the state's school fund (and put about $26 million a years in state benefits for veterans). Once these facts were brought to light (facts the legislators should have known already), another vote was held to reconsider the bill. The motion to reconsider was passed, and finally, the bill was approved by the House on a vote of 91 to 53.

This was a conflict between tea bagger social values and fiscal sanity. In the last legislative session in 2011 (the Texas legislature only meets once every two years), the Republicans cut school funding by about $5 billion. This years budget restores about 20% of that money, but if the lottery had been killed another $2 billion would have been lost -- meaning the school funds would have again been cut (or taxes would have been raised). Thank goodness that cooler heads prevailed.

It does bring up the question though of whether some of the newer teabagger members of the House have a clue about state finances.

Dallas NAACP Wants Lottery Abolished

The Texas Lottery Commission is one of the agencies currently being reviewed by the Sunset Advisory Commission. That commission will make a recommendation to the Texas legislature at its next session on whether to renew the Lottery or allow it to die. It comes as no surprise that the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Texas Republican Party (in its platform) are opposed to renewing the lottery. The Baptists have always opposed the lottery, believing it to be a sin. And the Republican Party is just pandering to the large number of evangelicals in its base.

But there's another group that has now come out against the lottery being continued -- the Dallas NAACP. The Dallas branch of the NAACP recently voted unanimously to oppose the legislature renewing the lottery, saying too many poor people spend their money on the lottery and the lottery hasn't been a good enough supporter of public education. Juanita Wallace, president of the NAACP's Dallas branch, said, "People with very little money are spending their money on the lottery. This has been bothering us for a while. People oftentimes make decisions not in their best interests. We have to look out for those people."

I have been a supporter of the NAACP for about 40 years now. They're a great organization that's done a lot of good in this country -- especially in the areas of civil rights and voting rights. But I cannot agree with this latest decision by the Dallas branch. It smells like a "nanny state" initiative. That people are too stupid to make their own decisions, so the government should make those decisions (and basically tell people how to live their lives). That's a big change for an organization that has been dedicated to freedom.

People have always made some dumb decisions, and probably always will. But in a truly free country, it is just wrong to try to legislate any kind of social behavior. people should have the right to make their own decisions --  even dumb decisions, and even if they are poor. Just because someone doesn't have as much money as you do, doesn't give you they right to make decisions for them -- even if you disapprove of their decisions.

And as far as education goes, the lottery was never meant to be a cure-all for it. It was just meant to supplement other state funds, and it has done that. The lottery has put $14 billion into the education of Texas children -- $1 billion in just the last year. Education in Texas is not in trouble because of any failure of the lottery, but because Republican legislators slashed over $5 billion from education funding in the last legislative session. Blame them, not the lottery.

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NOTE -- For those of you who may not know, here is how lottery funds are distributed:
63% goes to paying off prize winners
25% goes to the school fund
5% goes to retailer commissions
5% goes to administration costs
2% goes to other state programs