Oregon's lottery thing was supposed to be strictly for economic development. That's worked out well, hasn't it?
Since the okey-dokey was given to the lottery, we haven't seen much in the way of economic development. What we have seen is the state becoming ever more dependent upon gamblers, and the money that they pay in that was supposed to go for economic development has instead been diverted.
There's a new state park in the coast range - L.L. Stubb Stewart state park. That's some fine economic development there, Lou - no wonder Oregon's still among the tops in unemployment.
This measure continues dedicated funding from the state Lottery to some of the very resources and places that give Oregon its identity: state parks, beaches, historic sites, recreation areas, fish and wildlife habitats and watersheds. Measure 76 asks voters to extend the current lottery allocation of 15 percent to the protection of these causes.
That's some fine economic development there - and none of this stuff was what you were told the lottery would provide. The lottery was sold to you as a means for ensuring economic development, not "fish and wildlife habitats and watersheds".
Translation: more land-use "planning", and further erosion of your property rights, paid for by gamblers.
Result: less economic development - the exact opposite of what the lottery funds are supposed to be used to promote.
I'm okay with the state keeping the lottery... as long as they abolish all other taxes. But we all know that will never happen.
OT: Is HTML in the comments section a new thing? I remember trying HTML tags when I first started commenting here and they didn't seem to work.
Posted by: fallingpianos | September 30, 2010 at 01:37 PM
I'm not okay with the lottery - it's just cripple-hopping. The state makes a lot of money off addicts.
Good catch: HTML coding is active again after an extensive hiatus due to troll activity. HTML5 is not presently supported, but other versions should work.
Posted by: Max | September 30, 2010 at 05:25 PM