Jackson Jambalaya

I think it would be great for half to go to education and the other half go to infrastructure. Otherwise you would most likely have to increase the gas tax to pay for infrastructure. I am in the road building industry and the money has to come from somewhere otherwise we will be back on mud and gravel roads again. Once you get behind the 8 ball on maintenance the cost of fixing roads and bridges quadruples. for example to over lay one mile of road for sake of using simple numbers say 1 million dollars for every mile for an 1 1/2' overlay. Now take that same mile of road and if you have to mill and overlay the cost doubles to 2 million a mile. Now if you have to undercut and rebuild the road bed of that one mile of road the price jumps to over 5-8 million a mile. (These are not true numbers of costs just for and example).

Be careful what you wish for!

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92598&page=1

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/09/04/report-unintended-consequences-lottery-based-scholarships-and-how-fix-them

http://www.popecenter.org/commentaries/article.html?id=2878

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/02/25/3326421/state-lottery-education/

"Mississippi Lottery for Education" Didn't the state already try funding school districts with riverboat casinos revenues?

Let's pray this passes. We are so antiquated in the state of Mississippi. Let's get with the other 45 states that have the lottery. It is about time!!!!!

Sort of trash cans that idea that the people get to vote for what they want. The people voted in the lottery in the 90s. Politicians decided they knew better than the people.
What is the difference in casinos and the lottery?
The money will go the same place as the money from the casinos went. It will not be used for education and road maintenance.

Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee are sure enjoying the money Mississippians pump into their state lotto's.

According to WAPT this morning, the bill was expected to be killed in the Senate on religious grounds.

Does anybody see the irony that the House and Senate passed a bill to allow churches to have armed congregation members? Of course, they also want to pass the religious freedom to discriminate bill that would allow good religious people to not sell lottery tickets to homosexuals.

God must want us to have schools that suck, roads with potholes, and bridges that fall in.

Too bad the money will end up in Supp legislative retirement fund.

Speaking of "casinas", has anyone driven through Tunica lately? place is a ghost town. I think its a generational thing. I'm 33 and short of spending $100 here and there, myself and friends could care less about them. I guess a college education lets you deduce the fact that all those lights and fancy decorations aren't because they are losing money.

This is a pure shame. Here we are, the poorest and least educated state in the Union, yet we want to encourage the redistribution of money from our poorest, least educated members of our state, to those of the middle and upper class who aspire to attend college. If this passes, poor Mississippians will be stripped of the few dollars they possess and receive no benefit from it. Proponents might say this is designed to make college more affordable for every Mississippian, poor and wealthy. That is a lie. The wealthy, not the poor will benefit. The lottery will not create an endless pot of gold but will have revenue limitations, just as businesses and taxes have.

Just look at Georgia's Hope Scholarship. It started off as an avenue to provide full college tuition to students who met low academic qualifications coming from middle class income families. However as the program advanced through the years, Georgia continued the low academic qualifications and increased the household income eligibility, thus increasing participation in the scholarship. Yes, that decision had some value but as mentioned before this is not some endless pot of gold. What Georgia soon found was that the lottery revenue did not match the scholarship's operating cost. So, they had to drastically overall the system. The result was to receive a full scholarship, you had to have a 3.7 GPA, while those less academically achieved receive a much smaller scholarship.

The above is what will happen to Mississippi. Everyone will "get paid" at first and then the money won't be there. So, they will increase academic qualifications. Those who come from more economically sound backgrounds, will adjust and meet those standards, while those who do not come from that background will fail to do so. Yet, it is those individuals and their family members who fail to adjust will disproportionately fund the lottery.

Lotteries are a tax on the poor to fund the educational ambitions of those more fortunate than them. Lotteries take advantage of peoples' hopes and dreams, and rip apart families just as the casinos have done in the state.

I don't know why I log into this blog everyday. Oh! Yeh! To be informed on all the legislative hanky panky. Let's have a lottery.
Just don't partake and you won't pay the lottery tax. And. If you feel lucky buy a ticket. Win 376 million dollars. Buy an island and have beautiful half naked women slatter on the sun screen.

... the money has to come from somewhere otherwise we will be back on mud and gravel roads again.

You must not live in Jackson. We already are back on mud and gravel.

Ms. has a very bad habit of mixing religion into everything. The funny part, those who want to involve religion in everything have very few qualms about breaking all of the commandments.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

Outside of PowerBall madness, no right-thinking person regularly plays the lottery. It's for poor folks and the elderly who have everything to lose, yet nothing to lose.

In regards to Tunica, if the state would allow a sports book to operate out of the casinos, they'd come back to life in a big way.

10:06 - you are repeating an oft quoted, but totally untrue fact that does nothing but add fodder to the trough for those that like to feed on the slop.

There was nothing in the legislation that enacted casinos directing that the money 'go to education'. I am sure that many folks talked of the increased state revenue that would allow us to fund things - such as education, roads, Medicaid, etc. But the money was not directed to be spent on any particular need.

I realize you and others will continue this mantra because facts are just little things that get in the way of a good bitch. If you want to dispute this, pull the legislation and show where it was directed to fund any part of education specifically.

The 'purr' gonna spend they money somewhere. Might as wells spend it on a lottery. That ain't my business nor yorn so quit with the sanctimony as if you're protectin' 'purr' folks from they-selves.

Maybe we could have a riverboat lottery and restrict it to the Ross Barnett Reservoir with proceeds going to fund ramp repair and removal of all them damned orange balloons and other stupid gaseous-related shit in the water. Or a forty story HO-tail over by Shuckers.

I was for the lottery until I watched this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PK-netuhHA

Entitlement checks are spent somewhere. I would rather see the money spent on local businesses versus the state which will waste the money in a heartbeat. Think about it. Mississippi is the crown jewel of entitlement programs in the US. The biggest leaky firehose of free money to people who can work or can't work. If you put the lotto in every Haji convenient store you'll make it easy to spend most of it there instead of on food, clothing, pick any business. The lotto is for deluded people who have almost no chance of winning anything. Don't give it back to the bureaucrats to spend it unwisely. Because you know they will.

If you are a true conservative, you would allow people to make up their own minds about whether it is in their best interest to play the "Missippi Lottry." Conservatives complain (rightfully) that Libs are meddling in their lives and making decisions because they think they are smarter. Purr don't equal dumb. Let people make up their own minds about whether to play the lottery and don't make them drive to Louisiana to do it.

1:39, that is what we were told to increase the yes vote when gambling was put on the ballot. Of course there isn't anything written down. How can politicians peal off dollars for their own pocket if they put things in writing?

Win 376 million dollars. Buy an island and have beautiful half naked women slatter on the sun screen.

I think you could get fully naked women for $376 million

Lotteries aren't a tax on the poor and elderly per se, the are a tax on people who are bad at math, which includes much of the poor and elderly, but also a lot of other people.

I am proud that Mississippi doesn't have a lottery. 11:03 has it right. As for infrastructure, the rational response would be to raise gas taxes. It would also help not to cut the taxes already in place. Republicans take over just when our budget is getting healthier, and promptly screw things up. Shades of W.

Low income folks in MS are already spending their money on lottery tickets....in TN, AR, and LA. They may as well spend it on tickets in MS

The lottery is the only tax that is voluntary and fun at the same time. Don't play if you don't want to.

The infrastructure would be in good shape if there wasn't so many crooks with their hand in the cookie jar.
It is funny that there was money enough to build the infrastructure but with even more tax money taken in, not enough to keep it in shape.
Get rid of the criminals and there will be enough money.

Can't believe the number of church-folks on here who actually believe it's their business how I spend my own money, regardless of the source of that money.

3:54 should copyright that comment. And run for Legislature

3:30 - that may well be what "YOU" were told to get you to vote yes. But most of the folks that I talk to know the facts before they vote, not what "they were told". Obviously, you must be a Bernie or a Donald voter - uninformed and willing to believe what you hear.

Besides, when did you vote yes (or no) on the casinos?

10:36, You must have a very short memory. Most of the voting public has no idea about what they vote for. Look at all of the criminals they elect.
Personally I do not believe in voting. Look at where it has gotten us so far. So deep in debt that we are borrowing money from Mexico to keep our elected officials in spending money.

10:36 here.

No, I have a very long memory. I remember well that there was no connection between casinos and education when casinos were legalized. I also remember that there wasn't 'a vote' of the people to legalize casinos. (I also remember that we almost had horse racing, except for a little paper bag of cash at the HI Medical Center, but that's a different topic.)

I agree that most of the voting public has no idea what they vote for. I don't agree that most of what is elected are criminals, but I don't think we elect the best on many occasions.

I also recognize that idiots like you are what cause our problem. Thinking that not voting is the solution for the stupidity of others. Granted, not every time that you vote you get to be on the winning side, but if you don't vote you have absolutely no reason to bitch about who gets elected.

10:42, it is people like you that keeps the criminals in office. If all there is to choose from is criminals it is not a good idea to pick one of them to vote for. The people who do not vote are the only people who have a right to bitch. If you decide to go along with the farce you should not bitch. You are as bad as those you elect.