Skip Navigation

Scout Archives

Home Projects Publications Archives About Sign Up or Log In

In an attempt to deal with budget woes, a number of states are considering privatizing lotteries and roads

Big picture for roads will be costly http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2007/10/14/transported_1015.html Illinois ranked 49th in state funding http://media.www.dailyvidette.com/media/storage/paper420/news/2007/10/16/News/Illinois.Ranked.49th.In.State.Funding-3033598.shtml Gambling on the Future: Should California Privatize The State Lottery? [pdf] http://www.cbp.org/pdfs/2007/0706_bb_lottery.pdf Privatizing Roads http://www.env-econ.net/2006/02/privatizing_roa.html Would You Pay To Drive on Drew Carey's Private Freeway? http://blog.wired.com/cars/2007/10/would-you-pay-t.html Back in 1964, the state of New Hampshire took a bold and somewhat adventurous policy move as they decided to begin a state-sponsored lottery. Now, lotteries are more or less commonplace across the United States, and there are a number of such games that span multiple states. Lotteries are increasingly on the minds of state officials, as they find themselves faced with financing pension plans for employees and providing for new programs. One solution to this problem that is floating around is to privatize lotteries and allow them to be run by outside operators. California's Department of Finance recently received such an offer from Goldman Sachs. The proposition suggest that the state could find itself with an extra $14 to $18 billion dollars in its coffers if they agreed to lease the lottery out to this prominent investment company. Such a proposition has been met with skepticism, as many politicians and public policy experts have commented that lottery games essentially function as a regressive form of taxation. Lotteries are not the only state-run enterprises at stake, as a number of state and municipalities have begun to lease various pieces of their highway systems to private companies in recent years. The first link will take visitors to a piece on privatizing state lotteries which appeared in the International Herald Tribune on Sunday. The second link leads to an opinion piece on privatizing roads in Georgia by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Lyle V. Harris. On a related note, the third link leads to a piece from Illinois State University's own Daily Vidette which talks about how much money from the Illinois lottery goes to support public schools in the state. Moving on, the fourth link leads to a thoughtful policy brief from the California Budget Project on the prospects and pitfalls of privatizing the state lottery. The fifth link will take visitors to a weblog post on privatizing roads offered by Professor Tim Haab of The Ohio State University. Finally, for those who thought funny man Drew Carey wasn't in tune with the world of congestion pricing and road privatization, the last link leads to a video featuring Carey engaging those very topics in the City of Angels.
Alternate Title
Some U.S. states consider privatizing their lotteries
Scout Publication
Creator
Date Issued
October 19th, 2007
Data Type
Language
Date of Scout Publication
October 19th, 2007
Date Of Record Creation
October 19th, 2007 at 8:04am
Date Of Record Release
October 19th, 2007 at 10:49am
Resource URL Clicks
1

Internal

Cumulative Rating
0
Add Comment

Comments

(no comments available yet)