I think so. Would have been nice if it was in place 10 years ago. kind of hard to recover when your schools, highways and state economy in general are all 30 years behind the growth.

success story for all the haters...and helms

Quote :

"In One Year Lottery Raises Hundreds of Millions For Education Five Winners Earned Millionaire Status RALEIGH, North Carolina, USA (March 30, 2007) -- In its first year of operation, the North Carolina Education Lottery (NCEL) produced five winners of $1 million or more. That includes Jackie Alston of Halifax who hit the Powerball jackpot of $74.5 million for the Nov. 29 drawing. The NCEL has paid out more than $432 million in prizes and grossed over $895 million in sales from March 30, 2006 through March 29, 2007. Advertisement Advertise Here In addition to the $220 million the NCEL has already provided to the State Education Lottery Fund, they plan to make another transfer in a few weeks when they officially close the books on the January through March quarter. There’s also an additional transfer that will be made in June making a total of four transfers for the fiscal year that ends June 30. “We expect the transfer in a few weeks to bring the total so far to about $300 million— maybe a little more or a little less,” said Tom Shaheen, NCEL executive director. “It has been a hugely successful year and we are thrilled we have been able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for education in North Carolina from a revenue stream that never existed until the lottery’s creation.” Since March 30, 2006, the NCEL has introduced more than 50 instant scratch-off tickets and three computerized games-- Powerball was introduced May 30, “Carolina Pick 3” on Oct. 6 and “Carolina Cash 5” on Oct. 27. To sell those games, they have partnered with approximately 5800 retailers. Not only did the NCEL have to train all those retailers, but they also had to conduct background checks on the retailers; install computer terminals at every location; and set up an accounting network between the NCEL and the retailers. “It is hard to believe a year is past,” said Shaheen. “We’ve accomplished so much with the help of a very hardworking dedicated group of employees, our retail partners, GTECH Corporation, Wray Ward Laseter and the many state agencies that assisted us along the way. We have many more exciting things planned for the players, which I am confident will mean more great things for the state!”"

http://www.lotteryinsider.com.au/vol39/no2.htm

[Edited on May 10, 2007 at 1:09 AM. Reason : link]

5/10/2007 1:08:33 AM

too bad the legislature just moved money elsewhere that previously was going to education. hey, whatever makes you sleep well at night, right?

5/10/2007 1:22:58 AM

Parody? They don't take too kindly to that in TSB.

IBTL?

5/10/2007 1:27:11 AM

but not the lotto money. 100 of the lotto money still goes to education and it frees up other monies they used to have in education to be moved to other things like maybe roads for example or anything to help the state. bottom line the stae is better off.

5/10/2007 1:28:26 AM

so in other words, it wasn't an education lottery, just so long as you realize that.

btw, "100%" of the lottery money does NOT go to education. hell, not even 20% of it goes to education.

5/10/2007 1:49:18 AM

Agreed. To call it an Education Lottery is dishonest because the name implies that the money is being used to supplement the education budget not become the education budget. Just call it the North Carolina Lottery or something and be honest about it.

5/10/2007 2:53:18 AM

The first anniversary was spun pretty positively by this pro-lottery website.

Here's another take by the pro-lottery but not as rabid supporter...N&O:

Quote :

" Lottery: Year 1 Sales lag behind forecasts; higher payouts, new split of profits weighed J. Andrew Curliss, Staff Writer, News & Observer 3/30/2007 North Carolina's lottery, born of a scandal that led to criminal convictions of three people, turns one year old today. In its first year, players bought nearly $900 million in tickets. They have won more than $430 million in prizes. But sales have lagged behind forecasts, and some want changes. That includes Gov. Mike Easley, who wants to increase prizes -- and sales -- as part of his proposed budget. Meanwhile, officials continue to introduce new tickets and games, even planning an old-fashioned raffle drawing for the Fourth of July. The first year has seen one jackpot winner, plenty of dreamers and lots of losing tickets. "

And we have a case going through the courts which claims that the lottery was a tax which was passed illegally. They may be successful in suspending the lottery.

http://www.newsobserver.com/656/story/569071.html

5/10/2007 3:13:13 AM

Education would probably get more money if they just used the money to buy lottery tickets.

5/10/2007 11:14:24 AM

Now admittedly I'm an idiot/naive person about these matters, but why is money towards education always gone or diverted? Where does that extra money usually end up? If a politician says that X amount of money will go toward some program, and it is later discovered that some portion of that money was diverted away so that the program didn't get what it was promised, why is there no accountability? And for that matter, why does education seem to be the very first thing that people slash from the budget?

5/10/2007 11:18:31 AM

you guys have it twisted. the lotto money does go to education. if they take other moeny from education and put it somewhere else but all the lotto money is still in education it doesnt mean they took the lotto money they just took other money. this lotto assures a minnimum amount of money to education.

example

there was 3 million in education before. the lotto makes 10 million. that 10 million goes to education but if thers 11 million in education when its all said and done its because they took 2 of the orgiginal 3 million from education not part of the lotto money.

5/10/2007 11:27:59 AM

but don't get caught playing cards or they'll bring in the military!

5/10/2007 11:29:58 AM

good thing this money is going towards education because the kids are going to need to do well in school since their parents spent all their money on lottery tickets

5/10/2007 11:37:57 AM

God, some of you people are retarded....



Example...

NC has 100 Million budget for education


The State raises 100 million from its Education lottery


30 million or so goes to prizes, 5 million to manage the lottery, etc


So they transfer the 65 million dollars to the education budget totalling 165 million now....except in reality, the extra money (65 mil) of the original budget just gets redistributed to other pet projects, meaning Education ends up with the exact same amount as before, and some state senator gets his pet project funded.

It is a Lottery, not an Education Lottery. Are we better off? Well, Wake County Public Schools don't seem to have enough money, I540 can't get finished without being a toll road, Easley still takes money away from the Highway Trust Fund to cover his budget.....

5/10/2007 3:37:06 PM

Quote :

"the lotto money does go to education"

man you are an idiot. some of the lottery sales goes to pay winners, other money goes to manage the lottery. and it's a hell of a lot more than 5%, IIRC. And whatever's left over goes to education in some form or another. And, surprise, surprise, whatever was allocated to education before suddenly goes to some other pet project.

THe problem, of course, is that they move the education money BEFORE they know how much money the lottery makes, so if the lottery doesn't go as forecast (like this year), then guess who gets screwed?

Quote :

"why is there no accountability?"

I've kind of already hit on this, but its not that people are diverting money that has already been allocated to something else. Rather, its that the legislature diverts money that would have been allocated to education to something else. And there's nothing legally wrong with that, though there is something morally wrong with it. But then again, since when have NC's legislators shown any inkling of morality anyway?

5/10/2007 3:59:33 PM

^ now now, they do what is right in their own eyes. You gotta give them that much.

5/10/2007 4:33:18 PM

I still can't get over the irony of having an education lottery when we should be educating people not to gamble.

5/10/2007 4:38:22 PM

Quote :

"good thing this money is going towards education because the kids are going to need to do well in school since their parents spent all their money on lottery tickets"

nah, they just divert some money from their colt 45/nascar tickets/meth fund.....gotta make sacrifices to help the young'uns, right?

5/10/2007 4:41:44 PM

$161500000 was raised by the education lottery and dispersed for school construction


y'all are forgetting that the lottery money is not for education, but for school construction.

5/12/2007 12:55:18 PM

Last i checked the lottery grossed well under expectations.

It has not done well.


I dont mind regressive taxes though.

And if they pull this 1% transfer tax on real estate to fund the education system I am going to be pissed. Wake county needs less kids. Kids suck. Dont subsidize kids.

5/13/2007 7:13:13 AM

Wake County already has a lot of kids. At this point you're really deciding on just how dumb you want them to be.

5/13/2007 8:52:07 AM

Quote :

"And if they pull this 1% transfer tax on real estate to fund the education system I am going to be pissed. Wake county needs less kids. Kids suck. Dont subsidize kids."

i love the notion of a transfer tax. it doesn't affect the homeowners like the real estate agents are saying. if the real estate agents were really concerned bout the homeowners, they wouldn't charge a 6% commission.

5/13/2007 11:26:44 AM

6% fee.

Of that 3% usually goes to the sellers agent and 3% to the buyers agent. (i realize there are exceptions and this is sometimes negotiable)

Of the 3% it is usually split 50/50 with the agency.

So the real estate agent is left with about 1.5% of which he/she has to cover their advertising costs and the time/effort they spent trying to market the house.

Real estate agents arent exactly thieves. Of course they are going to try to protect their interests here.

I don't like the transfer tax. You are taking a fairly illiquid product like real estate and reducing its liquidity even further. That is NOT efficient taxation.

5/15/2007 4:57:07 AM

it doesn't reduce any liquidity.

5/15/2007 8:41:02 AM

Okay admittedly I may not know a whole lot about this tax.

From my understanding the tax is applied as 1% of the house's value.

Is that correct?


Because if so the tax burden will cause many mutually beneficial transactions to no longer occur.


Less transactions equals a loss in liquidity.


That was my logic behind the statement, perhaps there is something I dont understand about this specific tax. Please inform me.

5/15/2007 9:51:42 AM

The Real Estate Transfer tax would force the seller to pay a 1 percent sales tax on the total value of his property. This means a tax on the equity you've built up in your home over the years.

So if you sell a $200,000 home, you'd have to pay $2000 to the gov't for the privilage of selling your property.

That $200K home sold already provided the state with about a $19,000 consisting of sales tax on materials and labor, acreage fees, sewage fees, inspection fees and more.

And this targeted tax, in the name of building schools, would hit the elderly and single folks as well as others who don't have any children.

More info available at http://www.itsabadidea.org/home/

5/15/2007 10:31:13 AM

Yeah this tax blows hard.

For one thing pumping money into school systems has never proven to show results.

Fuck this bullshit.

Imagine if you bought a 200,000 house and put down 20% at 6% interest.

It would take you over a YEAR just to make enough payments to recoup the $2,000 you'd lose to the tax upon selling the house.

This doesn't include the real estate fees, closing costs, etc that you'd lose.

Personally I think this tax sucks dick.


And I was right it would definitely decrease liquidity because people would have to sell their houses at higher prices. The demand for housing is pretty elastic and you can bet this significant tax burdern would decrease the amount of homes on the market and the number of people looking to upgrade to a larger home.

5/15/2007 10:38:12 AM