Legislation that would place lottery funds into a special account so taxpayers know exactly how much lottery cash goes to their local schools was approved today by a House committee.House Bill 1441, by state Rep. Gary Banz, would create a special Common Education Lottery Revolving Fund to
collect and distribute lottery funds every six months.
"The way we handle lottery money today is a risky
business," said Banz, R-Midwest City. "Currently,
we try to predict how much money the lottery will
make each year and pre-spend it, building it into
school budgets. For the past two years, the lottery
has failed to meet those projections and schools
faced mid-year budget cuts as a result. We need to
allow the lottery to first produce and then
distribute the money. We're doing it backwards right
now."
In the current system, lottery funds are run through
the state school funding formula along with all other
education money, which makes it very difficult to
determine how much each individual school district
receives from the lottery. In addition, some schools
will receive no lottery money at all so long
as it is run through the state funding formula.
In addition, lottery projections have been
very inaccurate. In the 2007 budget year,
the lottery shortfall was more than $40
million and this year's numbers are below
projections once again.
Under House Bill 1441, lottery money would be
collected in the Common Education Lottery
Revolving Fund and distributed to schools every
six months divided on a per-student basis.
"The main benefit of this bill is transparency,"
said Banz, a retired public school educator at the
Putnam City, Ada, and Midwest City High Schools.
"The schools have not been able to tell parents how
much lottery money they receive. If we adopt this
reform, each school district will receive a specific
amount that will be clear to all."
Banz said the proposal would essentially mirror the
process used by Oklahoma City to collect and
distribute sales tax generated by the MAPS for Kids
program.
"Under House Bill 1441, all other state-appropriated
funds will still be run through the school formula to
ensure equitable distribution," Banz said. "But the
voters who approved the lottery were told it would be
'extra' money on top of other appropriations. Under
my bill, that lottery money will finally be distributed
equitably by treating all students the same."
House Bill 1441 passed out of the House Appropriation
and Budget Committee today. It will next receive a
vote on the floor of the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
No comments:
Post a Comment