Education, huh? That's how they always get through the door, but they'll find a way to spend the money elsewhere. Tennessee started a lottery just a few years ago for "education". Now, they're already threatening to cut funding to schools if they don't raise the sales tax again. Same old story. Public education will never truly be a priority for government, at least not at the state/federal level. Find a wealthy county, and you'll probaby find decent schools.

>We are going to get our first state lottery ever in North Carolina next year. For years the bible-thumping house has killed it til now. Over the years a large portion of dollars from our state were being spent in Virginia and South Carolina playing their lotteries so NC finally decided to keep the money in-state and spend the proceeds on our education system.
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>>>>Here in Wisconsin they used to have an add on TV for the state lotto. The jingle was "You don't have to play to win". Now the reason for that is that is that some of the net income from the state lottery is used to reduce your property taxes. I think last year my property taxes were reduced by $100 because of lottery. So I am winning even if I don't play <bg>
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>>>Actually, I'd argue that you're losing whether you play or not, since the social cost of the state encouraging gambling is probably higher than the tax reductions.
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>>>Tamar
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>>Interesting. I wonder how many states do not have a state lottery. I wonder if there any statistics related to this. Very interesting indeed.