lottery

The North Carolina Education Lottery has seen many changes since its scandal-soaked enactment in 2005: lots of new games, Mega Millions, even a new headquarters. But one thing has…

Click here to view and here to listen to Jon Sanders discussing this Spotlight report. RALEIGH — North Carolina’s government-run lottery gets most of its money from the…

The North Carolina Education Lottery was sold as a way to boost education spending, but N.C. boasts the same problem found in other lottery states: a declining rate of spending for education, especially in comparison with the rest of the state budget. Furthermore, poverty, unemployment, and property tax rates remain the best predictors of lottery sales.

This report highlights eleven action items that North Carolina’s new General Assembly should seek to implement in the first 100 days of the 2011 legislative session. These items touch upon a cross section of public policy areas, including education, economic development, property rights, energy and the environment, health care, the budget, and transparency. We at the John Locke Foundation believe that these items represent straightforward actions that would greatly enhance the liberty and prosperity of North Carolina’s citizens.

RALEIGH – Counties with high poverty and unemployment rates tend to have the highest rates of lottery ticket sales in North Carolina. That’s a key finding in a new John…

Property tax rates, unemployment, and poverty rates are the best guides to a county’s lottery sales per adult. Neither personal nor household income was associated with a county’s level of lottery sales per adult.

Gov. Mike Easley’s proposed $18.9 billion budget does not provide enough relief to taxpayers who made it possible. The governor could have returned the $1.1 billion in overcollections to taxpayers without jeopardizing future fiscal health. This would include ending the half-cent sales tax and 8.25 percent income tax rate set to expire in 2007, and providing a temporary quarter-cent sales tax refund. Removing the county burden for Medicaid would also ease the fiscal pressure local governments face to raise taxes to pay for schools and roads.

Gov. Mike Easley’s proposed state budget takes advantage of a $2 billion surplus to increase spending by $1.6 billion, according to a preliminary analysis by the John Locke Foundation.

As the law is currently written, the education lottery will do little to fund the most critical needs of North Carolina’s students. Too much of the revenue will be used for unproven class-size reduction efforts and pre-kindergarten programs. Too little of the lottery revenue will be given to school districts and charter schools that have critical school facilities needs. The General Assembly can maximize the educational benefit of the lottery revenue by distributing more funds for capital expenditures to high-growth school districts and to charter schools.

RALEIGH – North Carolina’s education lottery would set aside too much revenue for unproven educational programs, a new John Locke Foundation report argues. A better formula could lead to…