🚀 go-pugleaf

 
Well, the money from the lottery that you're talking about isn't new  
revenue, as your post seems to imply.  The revenue from that is going to  
keep already-in-place programs funded in *current* levels, measured in  
constant dollars.  It's not a new cash cow.  The Lege had several choices  
before it last session:  pass an income tax (which few outside Bob  
Bullock were brave enough to advocate), pass a lottery, or crank up user  
fees by a few thousand percent on all sorts of things and close some  
exemptions in the sales tax (which they also did).  The other possibility  
they could have chosen was to crank up the sales tax into the 10% range.  
That wasn't very popular politically, either.
 
 
 
I've thus far refused to play the lottery.  I think the Lege shoulda gone  
on and had the collective balls to pass an income tax, which is far  
overdue in this state, but since they didn't and passed a lottery  
instead, the only way I can protest is by refusing to buy into their  
lottery.
 


 * Origin: The Finish Line (1:382/45.0)