June 24, 2010 Volume 6, Number 25
In This
Issue
.
.
A Little Bit of
Humor
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Congressman Blaine
Luetkemeyer
By
Cynthia Davis
Gambling continuously increases its stranglehold on
Yet the siren song of gambling advocates continues. I once asked my
own State Senator, Scott Rupp, why he was sponsoring the repeal of the
loss limits on casinos. He repeated the mantra of the pro-gambling
crowd that it would mean more money for public schools. As a
pro-family conservative, I have a real problem with destroying families
and people's lives in the name of
'education.'
Legislators who accept campaign money from the gambling industry often
justify their acceptance of such support by claiming that "tax revenues
generated by gambling are for a 'worthy cause,'" i.e. funding public
education.
To begin with, casinos are not in business to fund education. They
exist to make huge profits. And, their primary targets are the citizens of
the State who can least afford to lose their hard earned money; senior
citizens, husbands and wives with a gambling addiction, and people in
desperate need who think that by gambling they can some how strike it rich
and solve all their problems. Gambling doesn't solve problems, it
creates them!
Now that we have seen the devastating effects of removal of loss limits,
how about the honey-coated promises of the casino industry to generate big
bucks for education? It turns out that the schools are getting less
than 1/3 the promised amount!
This year the pro-gambling State Senate was at it again. This time
it was to spend our scarce resources directly on inducing more people to
gamble via the State Lottery. Mathematically, the odds are
astronomically against those who play the lottery. Over the course
of a year, those who gamble that extra dollar, or two, or five at the cash
register are simply paying hundreds of extra dollars in taxes to the
State.
While the State of
Advertising
Budget:
Fiscal
Year 2005 $2.1
million
Fiscal
Year 2006 2.1
million
Fiscal
Year 2007 1.5 million
Fiscal
Year 2008 1.3
Million
Fiscal
Year 2009 1.3
Million
Fiscal
Year 2010 1.3
million
Fiscal
Year 2011 $8 million
Yes, this last number is 8 MILLION of our
tax dollars!
Who's
Responsible?
Governor Nixon recommended that the Legislature increase the lottery
advertising budget from $1.3 million to $5 million for 2011. That alone
would have been a horrendous increase. However, that wasn't enough for the
Senate and the gambling industry, so they decided to increase the
Governor's recommendation to $8 million - more than six times the current
amount to advertise the lottery!
Why such a huge increase? The pro-gambling forces said we needed to
drive more people to want to gamble so the State Lottery could rake in
more money. My Senator was one of three Republican Senators on the
Conference Committee who advanced the Senate's pro-gaming
agenda.
I am proud to say that I voted against this horribly destructive plan to
lure people into gambling and thus lose more of their hard-earned money,
but the Senate position prevailed.
A
common legislative question I'm asked is "What happened to all that
gambling money that was supposed to go to education?" The short
answer is that the expectations were lowered as to the State's obligation
to fund schools. Since 'gaming money' was going into the school
fund, there was less pressure to spend regular State revenues on education
so the net effect was far less.
The longer answer is that the
predatory nature of gambling causes significant harm such as bankruptcies,
broken homes, gambling addiction, increases in crime, and even suicides.
So, as long as the State and local municipalities are picking up
part or all of the tab for these unmentioned hidden costs, a percentage of
the money extracted from gambling is little more than a redistribution of
wealth.
I voted against the State Budget because I believe it violated the
Missouri Constitution, which requires a balanced budget. The budget
that was passed by the Missouri General Assembly was around $350 million
over what we should have spent. Yet some Legislators are now lying
to the public and saying they balanced the State
Budget.
But balancing the budget on the backs of the poor -or those with a
gambling addiction- is not the solution. The recession didn't sneak
up on us. We all saw a tight budget coming as we watched our economy
diminish. The answer is to first turn our economy around and create
more wealth for individuals -not attempt to wring the last nickel out of
those who can least afford it and do more harm to the citizens of
However,
there is hope. Some of us are willing to stand on principles, rather
than pandering to the pro-gambling lobby. It is hard to be in the
minority on social issues, especially when your party is supposed to be in
the majority. However, history is full of examples of one person who
made a difference by standing strong against evil. Our citizens
deserve moral leadership and one by one some of those pro-gambling
legislators are getting replaced.
Your
thoughts are important to me, so please let me know what you think about
gambling revenue for education. You can send me your opinion by clicking
here: Cynthia Davis
A Little
Bit of Humor.
.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mysouthwestga.com/news/story.aspx%3Fid%3D416812&usg=__i3qlGMkGnfGz1vUfAeiChAANRCA=&h=345&w=440&sz=71&hl=en&start=157&itbs=1&tbnid=6poPp0vpSjLl5M:&tbnh=100&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlottery%26start%3D140%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1)
Webster's
Definition of Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at
math.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A man
rushed into his house and yelled to his wife, 'Mary, pack up your things.
I just won the National Lottery!'
'Brilliant,'
replied Mary, 'shall I pack for warm weather or cold?'
'I don't
care.' the man sneered, 'just so long as you're out of the house by noon!'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Did you
hear about the man who won $20,000,000 on the Lottery?
He gets $20 a
year for a million years.
This
Capitol Report is a weekly column by Representative Cynthia
Davis, from the
19th District, covering events in the Missouri Legislature and
district-wide issues.
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