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.
i'm fine with Powerball and Mega Millions thank you very much.
Yeah how about a National game with a 67% payback percentage! Call it America's Dream Game.
i don't think a national lottery would work because of a few factors:
- Not every state has a lottery, and there are states against lotteries.
- The lottery game would probably be controlled by the government, and think of the payouts if the government controlled the game.
- Lotteries would have to get it approved by the states, and every state would have to agree with the conditions for it to work.
i dont think its gon
The problem I have with the proposal is that, if it is ever put into place it'll wind up like the Social Security program. Social Security was established strictly as a retirement program for those who had no company benefits when they reached 65 but over the years the politicians saw the fund as a cash cow to fund their own pet entitlement prgrams. Now that system is threatened. Who is to say that the pols won't rape an education program as well? "I promise" hasn't, doesn't and won't work, as a politician's promise is always made with fingers crossed and never lasts beyond an upcoming election.
The problem with proposals like this is that lottery money always ends up not being in addition to tax money, but instead of tax money. It's happened in Massachusetts, and I assume most states with lotteries. Schools should be funded with tax money, period - that's what taxes are for. I find it amazing that taxes funded schools quite well for 200 years, but when lotteries appeared suddenly tax money wasn't enough.
NY too.
a national lottery just plain wouldn't work. remember when an international lottery game was proposed?
It's easier to start a national lottery.