Woodward Light Rail Lottery Tickets

**Russix** · July-27-11, 02:06 AM

http://tinyurl.com/3ezfp2o

Washington State Lottery is selling scratch off tickets to fund their Amtrak subsidy. These scratch off tickets are pretty popular around here. What do yo think?

**Tig3rzhark** · July-27-11, 02:57 AM

Maybe the state should take a lesson from them. Things might move a little faster.

**Bigb23** · July-27-11, 06:55 AM

Well, we all know how well our lottery has worked for Michigan schools. Millions of dollars a year going in the front door, and millions of dollars a year going right out the back door.

And yet - new millage's are needed every few years to "bail" out the school systems. Have other state lotteries had the same funding problems as Michigan?

**DetroitPlanner** · July-27-11, 07:21 AM

I am pretty sure by law all state lotto moneys have to go to the school aid fund. How about we increase the gas tax?

**Bigb23** · July-27-11, 07:33 AM

Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

I am pretty sure by law all state lotto moneys have to go to the school aid fund. How about we increase the gas tax?

What I'm saying is, as the lotto money came into the school fund, the state withheld state monies that were previously going into the coffer. So, in effect, instead of improving the school systems, they just functioned as before the lottery funding.

**mwilbert** · July-27-11, 07:40 AM

What I'm saying is, as the lotto money came into the school fund, the state withheld state monies that were previously going into the coffer. So, in effect, instead of improving the school systems, they just functioned as before the lottery funding.

True, but that is why using lottery funds to fund a new thing, like light rail operating costs, is appealing--you can't use the money to replace funds that never existed, so the money definitely goes to the new project, although of course it is always possible to charge stuff back from other departments and otherwise charge the new organization for services provided by existing ones.. But there are some limits to how much of that you can do. I'm not endorsing the idea of a lottery to finance light rail, but it isn't the same as using the money for an existing purpose.

**DetroitPlanner** · July-27-11, 08:03 AM

Originally Posted by Bigb23

What I'm saying is, as the lotto money came into the school fund, the state withheld state monies that were previously going into the coffer. So, in effect, instead of improving the school systems, they just functioned as before the lottery funding.

I don't disagree with you. Funds from the gas tax go directly to the Michigan Transportation Fund [[MTF). The MTF is a set-aside used to 1. Match Federal Aid for road construction projects, 2. Provide for the operation and capital needs of transit, 3. Provide for the repair and maintenance of roadways, 4. a 1 percent set-aside for non-motorized improvements.

There is only a finite number of people willing to buy lottery tickets. If you give them another gaame it will ultimately hurt existing games and lead to lower revenues for the schools.

By raising the gas tax, you use the existing beauracracy and there is no need to create a new one. Funding improvements by lottery is pure folly because most of who pay in lose. Funding improvements through a transportation user fee however improves the system by those who are using it. Even small increases in gas taxes may be enough to push people off of driving thier single occupancy vehicles and into carpools or transit.