As a longtime state lottery supporter, I quietly celebrated the official beginning Monday of Mississippi’s entry into this form of raising state revenue as small victory over the notion of Mississippi continuing to shoot itself in the foot through senseless and unjustifiable lottery opposition. I bought one on the way home from work – and lost.
Those who oppose or opposed the lottery on religious grounds certainly have my respect of their beliefs. But as Mississippians of a certain generation have long witnessed in local option liquor elections, one of Mississippi’s oldest and most reliable political alliances existed between people of faith and people of avarice – the preachers and the bootleggers.
Perhaps alliance is too strong a term, but it’s undeniable that both groups had the same end game – the preachers wanted their flocks protected from demon rum and the bootleggers wanted to keep their corner of the illegal booze market cornered.
Total tax revenues collected from smoking, drinking and gambling have exceeded a half billion annually for several years, including the additional general sales taxes the activities generate, according to the State Department of Revenue’s data.
Gaming in the 2018 fiscal year generated $249.1 million in taxes in the form of $119.2 million to county and municipal governments and the state's portion of $128.9 million. Overall, gaming provided 2 percent of general fund revenues. Tobacco taxes generated $158 million or 3 percent of the general fund. Alcoholic beverage taxes generated $89.9 million, but $11.5 million went to county and municipal government, leaving $78.4 million or 1 percent of general fund revenues for the state.
Mississippi voters believe - with varying degrees of factual and historical support for those beliefs - that they have been promised in the past that legalizing and taxing alcohol sales, gaming and other "sins" would provide support for public education and other noble pursuits. They also believe that those "promises" to have proven to be either false or grossly overstated.
The other lessons from the ghosts of sin taxes past are that sin tax efforts produce strange political bedfellows. As noted earlier, want to change a local option liquor law? Then prepare to fight both the local churches and the local bootleggers.
Want to change Mississippi gaming laws? Then prepare to fight both the religious community and the entrenched casino gaming industry. Since the inception of legal casino gaming in Mississippi in the 1990s, efforts to enact a state lottery or other major changes like the sports book met with opposition from the churches and from the big casino companies.
But in terms of the sports book, changes in federal law made it advantageous for the casinos to relax their opposition to the sports book. And the lottery? Inevitability kicked it. It became impossible for legislators to hold a straight face in opposing the lottery while Mississippians watched their neighbors driving across state lines to play the lottery in most Mississippi’s contiguous states.
Polling showed that Mississippians had favored a state lottery back to the mid-1980s. But the issue wasn’t politically ripe until Republican-led tax cuts on more traditional taxes left little money available for infrastructure and education. Then, as one newspaper headlined, “Hades froze over” in Mississippi and the lottery passed the Legislature in 2018.
Sources close to the Monday lottery rollout say the debut in Mississippi was impressive, with lottery ticket sellers moving more than one million tickets in the first hour and returning well over a half-million to the state’s tax coffers in less than 12 hours of sales.
The lottery won’t fix Mississippi’s governmental finance challenges. But it will keep a sizable chunk of Mississippi money that had been flowing over the bridges to neighboring states here at home - something my friend State Rep. Alyce Clarke of Jackson had been telling her legislative colleagues for 20 years.
Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Sid Salter: Reality of State Lottery Satisfying
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25 comments:
madness, small population, poorest state in the USA, another con job tax on the poor. appeals to envy, wanting something for nothing. If one can afford it and enjoys this okay but if on any of the 85 plus government assistance programs, gimmie a break.
Lotto fever. I hear a $50k scratch off has already been found. Does that mean all other scratch offs for that game are now pennies?
Stupid people buy stupid things in hopes of escaping poverty.
No good will come of the lottery, it will only embolden the greed of our government.
Some people buy lottery tickets. Some buy timber deeds. Which ones are stupid and full of envy?
If it's your money and you want to gamble, knock yourself out. My problem is that I am certain that a significant amount of the dollars being gambled is our tax dollars that have been distributed to others in some form of so-called welfare.
For once I was enjoying Sid's thought until this: "But the issue wasn’t politically ripe until Republican-led tax cuts on more traditional taxes left little money available for infrastructure and education." He just can't help himself by staying positive. He always has to insert some comment to lay blame for all the State's woes on the Republicans. Wise up Sid and state the true facts. The Republicans have had a say in Mississippi politics for a relatively short period of time. Progress in the state started with Kirk Fordice and took steps backwards under Musgrove. Barbour and Bryant have gotten us back on the right path of economic growth. Go back and look at the Kennedy tax cuts and the shot in the arm it gave US growth.
Not sure legitimizing vices to raise revenue is a proper roll for government. I hope in my lifetime that the state doesn’t legitimize and tax prostitution but would not be surprised. The sale of tobacco and alcohol has long been legal and creates more harm than good.
People are gonna throw their money away no matter what.
My only objection is we never get what government promises on these kind of things.
@9:13 they allow the sale of sugary foods as well. That increases dental work and medical problems throughout our state especially for those on government assistance. They should make that illegal as well.
I'm ready for legal weed and prostitution. I'm tired of having to fly to Colorado to enjoy legal weed and Nevada for a romp with tranny midgets. Why should the government in Mississippi tell two consenting adults that we can't exchange money for sex?
8:59 It's because of the forward thinking tax cuts of Fordice, Barbour, Bryant, and now Tater that all those Fortune 500 types are leaving high tax traps like Atlanta and Charlotte and running to Mississippi. If we could only tax child support payments we could cut even more corporate taxes and then...
Another way to bankrupt people.
@10:11 - You have my vote to legalize and tax pot, sweets, and prostitution - and eliminate property tax and income tax.
I totally support the lottery.
But..in fairness...whiskey was going ti keep the roads built and repaired....and build new schools...gambling was going to do the same.
The legislature and the college board..school boards, boards of supervisors and school taxes are several of the main problems. If, u will examine your property tax notice...the school taxes are equal to your actual county taxes. The people of Ms. Are being robbed with a fiuntain pen.
poor poor water electric and gas utilities.... payment gonna be laaaaaaate...!
8:59, I don't see this as a problem; if we can claw some of that money back, even in a round about way, its all good! It would be interesting to find a way to calculate how much public money makes its way back to the state via the lottery.
@10:16, name them. Bryant and Tater have cut taxes to benefit their rich Republican friends. The results include crumbling roads and bridges, rural hospital closures, underpaid teachers, etc.
boy howdy, does 9:47 get it right or what. state government said the exact same thing about legalized liquor and casino gambling.
Calm down, Sid, put it back in your pants. A good amount of lottery eanings will be misspent or embezzeled, as Chad White shows all ths time in his aidits of one state agency or local bureaucracy aftet anothrr.
10:16 AM Where might I find a list of all of these Fortune 500 companies who have moved from Atlanta and Charlotte? The economic statistics have been showing economic decline in this state for decades and that has accelerated under Phil.
8:09 could you post the website that breaks down the 85 welfare programs?? Please Thanks
Taxpayer
Will someone remind me when we voted on this? I would have voted no, but I don't remember getting the chance. How did we come to this?
@8:44
You live in a Republic. Your elected officials do the voting for you.
Some buy lottery tickets. Some place wagers on games or races. Some buy Viagra. Whatever your choice, you're hoping to win something tonite, betting on the come.
$1000 cash dollars to the first of you yahoos who can produce any evidence whatsoever that the legislature, any governor, any bill claimed that liquor sales or 'riverboat gaming' would provide any help for education. Please quit making that false claim. It ain't never happened. And neither has it been promised with the lottery.
"Oh yeah? Well that's what somebody at church said last week!" And, "I remember my daddy telling me that almost thirty years ago and he knew a man in the legislature".
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