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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 1995
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Editorial
Lottery Funds
Bv the time readers get this edition of the Rappahannock News the General Assembly will probably have disposed of Governor George Allen’s proposal to return a portion of proceeds of the lottery to the localities.
It is unlikely the governor’s budget amendments will win approval, and this suggestion by the governor may well have been designed less as a serious proposal than to score points in the fall election. The issue deserves more serious consideration than it is likely to get in the present partisan climate.
For years the cities and counties of Virginia have asked for a portion of the lottery proceeds to be returned. Suggestions have ranged from 25 percent to 50 percent, and the methods for determining each locality’s share have generally been based on school-aged population, or on point of sale.
Instead Gov. Allen proposed to start by returning 5 percent of lottery proceeds and increase that to 100 percent by 2000-2001. He proposed that the distribution in the current year be based on the localities’ local composite index.
Nothing could benefit Rappahannock less than basing the county’s share on the local composite index. By now most readers are familiar with how the composite index makes the county appear wealthy because of real estate.
According to the composite index the county also stacks up as more wealthy than most localities on income. Apparently the composite index uses mean income, because other statistics available from the state on median income indicate that Rappahannock with a median adjusted gross income of $22,061, is $1,200 below the state average of $23,261. A few very wealthy individuals can greatly influence the mean income. Median income would far more accurately reflect the citizens’ ability to support government.
Returning lottery proceeds to localities based on point of sale enjoys a certain logic. The money would be returning to where is was spent, and Rappahannock citizens apparently gamble more than the average on the lottery .
The fairest formula would return lottery proceeds according to school-aged population or average daily membership, since the funds would most likely be used to reduce the need for local taxes to support schools.
In the meantime, the legislature needs to give serious consideration to changing the formula for computing the local composite index so it more accurately reflects on a locality ’s wealth.
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