Well, here we go again. The details change every time the governor brings this up, but the essence of the plan -- using vice to fund virtue -- remains the same:
Gov. Mitch Daniels said today that he planned to ask the state legislature next year to approve the Hoosier College Promise, a financial assistance program for Indiana residents pursuing higher education. He also suggested privatizing the Hoosier Lottery or issuing bonds to be paid off from future lottery revenues as a funding source for the initiative's estimated $50 million annual cost.
I've liked some of the governor's ideas (such as supporting school discipline; editorial here) and disliked some. Privatizing the lottery is currently at the top of my don't-like list. I've written about it in the dead-tree product and had more to say here from time to time. Not much more to say about it -- it's as close to a despicable idea as I've ever seen. The governor thinks a company might be willing to spend up to $1 billion upfront to run the lottery. It will want to get back that money and more. The only way to do that is to create more gamblers who waste more money on a fool's dream. Government should be denouncing such enabling, not facilitating it.
Comments
Wasn't the lottery once touted as having it's "proceeds to benefit senior citizens".
I guess it helps them all right...to go broke faster IF they play.
Maybe the older folks are smarter than we realize...
But privatizing?
Nah.
It's kind of like having the "Guv" climbing in bed with the devil...only now, the Guv is not only MAKING the bed, he's fluffing the pillows and leaving a breath mint on them!
C'Mon, Mitch, ease up with the leasing gigs.
NOT his best idea.
B.G.