Who’d a thunk it? The party of sanctimony and the religious right is cozying up to the gambling, er, gaming, industry. First, they hold their state convention in a casino, then they rely on lottery tickets to fund their budget. That’s what I call budgeting like a family.
Can’t you just see it?
“Hey, Mona, seems like every month lately, our bank account is dry before the end of the month. Where’s all that money going?”
“Well, ever since they took away our earned income tax credit, increased the sales tax and then added a tax to our power bill, we’re just shy of making our monthly nut.”
“So, you’re saying we’re bringing in the same money, but our taxes are higher and our expenses are going up?”
“That’s about the size of it.”
“Oh, jeez! What are we going to do? Are we going to get into even more debt?”
“Don’t sweat it. I’ve got it covered.”
“Really? How?”
“Lottery tickets. I’m buying enough to make sure our winnings cover our shortfall.”
“Whew! Good thinking. Lucky we don’t have to depend on something like our income going up.”
And that’s how Thom Tillis wants to fund his budget–selling lottery tickets. What a hypocrite. When the state first introduced a lottery, the money was supposed to supplement the education budget, not replace it. Now, they’re counting on lottery revenue that, so far, has never been realized to fund our priorities.
So the GOP took over state government promising to get our fiscal house in order. Now, we have competing budgets. The one from the senate fires thousands of teacher assistants, denies textbooks to school kids, and kicks the blind, sick and elderly off of Medicaid to balance it. The one from the house depends on winning the lottery to fund theirs. ‘
What’s completely obvious to anyone paying attention is that we have a revenue problem, not a spending one. The Republican tax cuts for their wealthy and corporate benefactors left a $450 million hole in the budget and they’re trying to fix it by either inflicting pain on school kids and the needy or the legislative equivalent to taking our paycheck to the racetrack. Wouldn’t it be novel to ask the people who are thriving post recession to chip in to help the rest of us?
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Call for the repeal of the 16th Amendment and reinstate the original Constitutions requirement for equal taxation! Equal taxation will reinstate equal Representation & controlled Government spending. Unlimited and unequal taxation leads to unlimited and uncontrolled spending! http://www.conventionofstates.com
You nailed in the last paragraph, Thomas. Republicans have bought into fairy-tale economics, where Tax Cuts Boost Revenue! Never mind that Laffer Curve hypothesis says that only cutting tax rates to the right of peak economic performance rate will increase revenues, and that cutting tax rates to the left of the peak rate will decrease revenues. They’ve GOT A PLAN and they’re going with it.
The last round of tax cuts has been a budget disaster. With no new revenue on the table, get ready for a couple of ugly years. I believe that the lottery is A Voluntary Stupid Tax On The Poor. Pumping p lottery sales is not sound policy. Lots of regular ticket buyers have abuse issues, and the state doubling down on lottery advertising strikes me as neither moral nor sustainable. When your politicians try to sell you fiscally unsound propositions, it’s probably time to elect some different politicians.
Great commentary
Thanks, James.
Gambling with our future or in receipt of campaign contributions is apparently modus operandi: http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/region-state/state-probing-sweepstakes-campaign-donations-1.331580
Conservatives have no values. Pick anything they claim as a value and I shall cite a dozen examples that it is a lie. Democrats and liberals lie, but they still stick to vague values. Conservatives have no values.
Speaker Tillis, the Governor and the NCGA rolled the dice with their support of “fracking” so I am not surprised that they are back again desperately looking to beat the house ’cause “baby needs a new pair of shoes.”