Insider Buzz: Georgia Senate Candidate Proposes National Lottery
Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Denise Majette proposed a national lottery for education Thursday, saying schools are woefully underfunded and need a boost without raising taxes.
A national lottery, Majette said, could add more than $100 billion over 10 years for education. States that currently don't have lotteries could opt out of the national lottery, she said.
Details were sketchy on how the program would work, although Majette insisted it would not sap the fund-raising power of state lotteries, which raise billions across the country, with the revenue often earmarked for schools.
Majette said lottery players would simply buy the new national game, too, and it would boost the number of overall lottery tickets sold.
"The lottery works for 40 states in America. It is time to make it work for America," she told reporters.
The lottery announcement came a day after Majette proposed enhancing the GI Bill to cover full tuition and living expenses for soldiers, as it once did. Majette also said this week that veterans should get better health benefits.
The three proposals are highlighted in Majette's first television ad, which debuted Thursday. In the ad, Majette stands in a kitchen and says she's the candidate who will best help families.
"All politicians talk about these days is each other, and nobody talks about Georgia's families," she says.
Later in the ad, she refers to her Republican opponent, Rep. Johnny Isakson, although she doesn't name him. Majette holds up a china plate.
"The big money contributors all support the other guy. They have dinners on fancy china," she says, then sets the plate down and picks up a paper plate sitting next to it. "In my campaign, we use these. But that's OK. I'll be nobody's senator - but yours."
Campaign spokesman Rick Dent said Majette will push her lottery and veterans plans hard in the weeks remaining in the campaign. He said Isakson was running a campaign weak on new ideas.
"We're running on this. Johnny's running for king, to be coronated," Dent said.
In a statement faxed to reporters, Isakson said he opposed the national lottery idea because it could weaken state lotteries.
"I would not propose or support any federal act that would potentially compete with, take away from or destroy Georgia's HOPE scholarship and pre-kindergarten program," Isakson wrote.
A national lottery has been proposed several times before in Congress, but never approved. Some other countries, including Mexico and Great Britain, have national lotteries.
The following is the official press release from the Majette Campaign:
Calls for National Education Lottery
Will Raise Billions for Schools
(Atlanta)Democratic nominee for the United States Senate Denise Majette today announced her plan for the National Education Lottery, a United States lottery that would raise more than $105 billion for schools over a ten year period.
For too long the professional politicians have offered nothing but the same old rhetoric, Majette said. And we send them to Washington and nothing ever gets done. Same old problems. Same old rhetoric. It is time to offer something new.
I propose a national lottery for education, she said. The proceeds from The National Education Lottery will go to reduce class size, improve test scores and provide Americas children the education they deserve.
The National Education Lottery is projected to generate anywhere from $70 billion to $141 billion over ten years. Assuming the real number lies somewhere in between, Americas school children would benefit from about $105 billion in new education funding in the next decade. States that currently do not have a lottery will be able to opt-out of the program. It is assumed such states will not participate in the program.
Weve seen the power of the education lottery right here in Georgia, Majette said. It is now time to unleash the promise of a national education lottery.
The costs associated with initiating a national lottery are relatively low. For the 40 states that already have lotteries there would be very little need for start-up monies because the national lottery would be the equivalent of adding a new game to their lottery repertoire.
The lottery infrastructure is already in place and many of the one-time costs already paid for. The federal government would simply reimburse states for allowing it to opt-in to their current lottery infrastructures. This amount would be in addition to the billions in funding states will receive for education.
In recent years, Georgias school children have suffered from unfunded Washington mandates that have left local communities strapped for cash and unable to provide our children the education they deserve.
Nationally, we see the same bleak picture. The proposed FY 05 federal budget proposes $9.4 billion less for Elementary and Secondary Education programs than was authorized under the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act.