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Lottery Funds
And Education
Both candidates for the 31st House of Delegates are talking nonsense when they discuss lottery funds and educational funding.
Incumbent Republican Del. Jay Katzen says he brought an increase of $210,000 for education to Rappahannock.
However, except for an increase in funds from the state sales tax, Rappahannock suffered a decrease in state aid for education, and the sales tax increase comes to the county automatically provided the General Assembly adopts any budget.
He also supports the Republican proposal to return 100 percent of the proceeds from the state lottery to the localities for education, crime prevention or tax relief. But why Would the state go the expense and trouble of running a lottery only to turn all the proceeds over to the counties and cities?
If the General Assembly would agree to turn 50 percent of the lottery proceeds over to the localities in the same w ay 1 percent of the sales tax comes to them for education, based on the school-aged population, as part of the funding formula before the Local Composite Index kicks in forcing this county to spend more than 74 cents of every dollar needed to fund the state’s standards of quality while the state spends less than 26 cents, the county would be satisfied.
Meanwhile Democratic challenger Sue Scheer says the assembly passed a bill, opposed by only two delegates including Del. Katzen, giving 100 percent of the lottery proceeds to education. But Del. Katzen and Virginia Education Association president Bob Jones are quite right. That was merely a shell game in which funds from the state’s general fund already earmarked for education were labeled “lottery funds.’’
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