Key issues still remain in shaping lottery
|
That’s what state Sen. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) told members of the Rotary Club of McMinnville Thursday, saying state legislators are still wrestling with several key issues.
“It’s been a long, long road to this point,” said Cohen, who has served 21 years in the Senate. “I introduced a lottery for the first time in 1984. And I guess you could say it’s due to my influence I was able to accomplish that goal in just 18 years.”
While Tennesseans have voted to OK a lottery, establishing the framework for what will be a billion dollar industry is another matter. Cohen estimates if the lottery can generate $1 billion a year in gross sales, that will translate to $300 million in scholarship money once overhead is paid.
It also means roughly $700 million will be injected into the state economy in terms of lottery-related expenses. Transporting and printing tickets will be two of those major expenses, as well as the communication network required for a lottery. A bank will benefit from lottery deposits, an advertising agency will be awarded the lottery contract, and a law firm will be retained for lottery issues, to name a few other expenses.
“The number one account for UPS in South Carolina is the lottery,” said Cohen. “And the lottery will probably be the number one advertising account in this state.”
With so many high-dollar decisions to be made, Cohen said it’s crucial to select the right administrators to serve on the board of directors, which will be the lottery’s governing body. He stressed he wants the lottery to be operated as fairly, and as free from political influence, as possible.
“When you’re involved with who gets the banking contract and things like that, there’s cause for concern because you want a level playing field,” said Cohen. “You don’t want to give one person too much power.”
Cohen says there is currently discussion about who should appoint the lottery’s board of directors and how many board members there should be. He favors a larger board of directors because he says that will spread out the power more evenly.
There’s also ongoing discussion about the academic requirements needed to receive a lottery scholarship and if those scholarships should be evenly distributed to students attending public and private schools.
Cohen maintains students should have at least a 3.0 GPA and score at least a 19 on their ACT to be eligible for a scholarship.
“It’s a scholarship, not an entitlement,” he said. “If we give kids an incentive to make good grades, maybe they’ll study more.”
Cohen said lawmakers had hoped to have a lottery in place by January but doesn’t know how realistic that goal is at this point. He said he expects the General Assembly to finish all its decision making by the end of May.