Colorado Lottery: Republican says Colo. Gov. pressure killed plan to privatize lottery
Republicans are accusing the Colorado governor of pressuring his party's legislators into essentially killing a plan to privatize the lottery.
They claimed Gov. Bill Ritter believes the lottery proposal would compete with his plan to bring in more property taxes to pay for education. Ritter denied the accusations Friday.
Republican Sen. Josh Penry of Fruita also said his Democratic co-sponsor on the lottery plan was under tremendous pressure to back away from the idea.
The co-sponsor is Democratic Sen. Chris Romer of Denver, who denied the accusation. He said he pulled his support because legislative lawyers would require that it be labeled as a debt obligation, which he opposes.
Penry and Romer earlier said privatizing the lottery would have raised as much as $2.6 billion.