ATLANTA - State schools Superintendent Kathy Cox called today for lottery ticket prices to be raised to help pay for K-12 education in Georgia.
Cox said during an appearance on CNN that hiking the price by just 50 cents per ticket could raise $350 million to help fill a massive hole left by state budget cuts in the past two years. Cox said raising prices would ensure K-12 got money while also preserving funding for the HOPE college scholarship and the state's prekindergarten programs.
"In down economic times, people are still buying lottery tickets," said Cox, a Republican running for her third term as state schools chief.
But the move likely wouldn't get much support from state lawmakers.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack Hill said Friday that he had considered adding an excise tax on lottery ticket sales to fund education. But he said the idea "didn't gain much traction" among his colleagues.
"It's a tough sell," said Hill, R-Reidsville.
Lottery spokeswoman Tandi Reddick declined comment. Chris Schrimpf, a spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue, declined comment because Cox has not discussed the plan with the governor.
The state constitution already allows lottery revenue to go to technology and buildings for elementary, middle and high schools, but lawmakers stopped allotting that money to K-12 in 2003. The state's education budget has been slashed by nearly $1 billion in the past 19 months amid the worst state economic crisis in decades.
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Associated Press writer Shannon McCaffrey contributed to this report.
The line between government and organized crime gets more blurry every day. How about legalize all forms of gambling and use those tax revenues to decrease losses. Wait, that will alienate the "moral majority." Back to the drawing board...
I think Kathy Cox needs to go back to high school and take the Economics course offered. If you raise the price of a ticket, less people will buy them. Then, your revenue will stay the same & likely go down.
This woman is running our schools?
Why not ask for the money back that was given to the administrator of the lottery as a bonus when there were more "suckers" out there than they thought.
We have a Libertarian running against Cox this year. I hope they debate. Vote Kira Willis, a teacher that will change the system, unless last place is still cool with everyone...
Politicians use this money for what they want to use it for, although it should be used for education and only education as it is was designed and billed to be!!!!
She must have been in charge of setting the prices of soft drinks at Augusta Airport. Great idea. When people are buying less of something, because they are broke, just raise the cost to run them away completely. And she is in charge of the Education for Georgia?
Diss, that's to control your carbonated footprint....
Cox might be a republican but she is not a conservative with these ideas, maybe it's time for the RINO to go.
This position should be appointed by the governor or even eliminated anyway.
Lottery ticket sales will remain the same. Some people will always try to get money fast, no matter how much they spend trying.
Yes, a tax on people really, really, really bad at math.
Secretary Cox's idea is a bad one. Sure, tax revenues have fallen off. Therefore, school spending needs to fall off by a similar amount. But no - o - o - o, we must find another tax to sucker the masses in.
If you raise the price of lottery tickets and leave the odds the same, you are trolling for suckers. Besides, Secretary Cox's proposal would raise only $350 million by her own estimates. That does nothing to help the multibillion dollar state-run education industry.
Another great education idea from a republican.This one might work like no child left behind.
You remember that Kathy Cox won the million dollars on Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. She may be slightly smarter than a fifth grader, but she does not know the first thing about free market economics, fascism, or socialism. The last thing the public eduation bureaucracy needs is an infusion of cash. They need to tighten their belts and reduce staff.
I've got an idea. Why don't we send illegal aliens and their children back to their home country? That would free up money for education. There would be less free lunch/breakfast, less spent on bilinqual classes, less children in classes allowing teacher to pupil ratio recommendations to be met. Less textbooks, less computers, less, less, less. Money saved.
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