Would lottery benefit state or exploit poorer citizens?
Would a state lottery benefit the people of Tennessee and provide college scholarships or would it hinder poor people and create gambling addiction?
Those are some of the questions being asked by locals as a state lottery debate makes its way into Middle Tennessee and specifically, in Warren County, where Elections Administrator Donna Yates advised it is important for voters to first understand what they will be voting on.
She said it boils down to whether voters want to remove the prohibition of a lottery from the state constitution. A “yes” vote does not enact a state lottery, as presumed by some.
“It doesn’t automatically establish a lottery. I think most people think if it passes on Nov. 5, we’ll automatically have a lottery,” she said. “No, no, no.”
Rather, Yates said, a “yes” vote in November means the General Assembly will still have to decide the issue.
State Sen. Steve Cohen, a major lottery proponent responsible for bringing the potential for a lottery to the hands of the voters, is one who is hoping legislators get that chance.
He said he has spent the last 18 years working to allow voters the opportunity to put the issue into the hands of state legislators and hopes if passed, lottery money will help education. He said he is getting several requests from smaller communities to speak on the issue.
“It’s the only money I’m foreseeing for education in state money in the next six to eight years, or maybe longer,” Cohen said. “There’s not going to be an income tax and the sales tax is already prohibitively high. The only hope we’ve got for education funding is the lottery.”
He pointed to Georgia’s lottery system as an example, where students with good grades can go to college on the HOPE scholarship.
“It’s worked in Georgia and it’s worked spectacularly. It’s improved the schools, the SAT scores, the high schools, colleges have better students in them and higher ratings. The University of Georgia is now, in some reports, one of the top 20 public universities in the country in certain areas, some that never were before.”
Additionally, he said the lottery has helped pre-kindergarten programs there and hoped for similar results here, as well as helping vocational and technical schools in addition to higher education. He said funds for before- and after-school programs and capital construction in K-12 are also goals.
But there’s no shortage of people who doubt the lottery will solve education budget issues. According to the Website of the Gambling Free Tennessee Alliance, lottery revenues are less than people think and the HOPE scholarship has helped less people obtain college degrees than imagined, with many students not able to keep their scholarships.
Additionally, the Website notes fears of political corruption, gambling addictions, illegal participation from children and that the odds of winning create false hope for the poor, who might spend their money on playing the lottery instead of purchasing necessities.
Roger Stacy of the Central Baptist Association on Sparta Highway said he views the issue first, as a moral one, and does not believe a lottery will benefit education.
“We know already from other states that have some kind of gambling that it devastates our young people and sets them up for a lifetime of gambling addiction,” he said.
“Not only that, the devastation it brings to the family and the loss of income for basic food items because money is not well spent. I base a lot of my information on the fact of having seen the devastation that gambling has brought to Mississippi, my home state, and talking to ministers and churches in that state and seeing first-hand the results of gambling upon families.
“So I’m opposed to it morally for what it’s going to do to the family,” he said, adding the economics of it don’t sound good to him either. “Money will be spent on things such as lottery tickets and not be spent upon basics for the family, so it’s going to make an impact upon our local economy.”
Cohen said after 18 years, he was just thankful to see the issue come before voters.
“The overriding thing was always, ‘Let the voters vote.’ To me, it was unbelievable that in America, we weren’t letting people vote on something they wanted to vote on.”
Stacy said an anti-lottery rally is being held at First Baptist Church of Smartt at 7 p.m. Monday, with the executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Convention speaking.
More information can be found on both sides of the issue at www.lotteryes.com for lottery proponents or www.gfta.org for those opposed.