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.