Do you ever ask yourself "Where does all that KY Lottery money go?"
- Thread starter Allan Brewer
- Start date
It was brought in to help fund the state's education system. What got Wallace Wilkinson elected too.
True....but when politicians got ahold of the money, well, it's not hard to figure out where the money went.
Here's the SC breakdown (and Kentucky is probably much the same):
45% is for prizes/payouts (and yes, free tix DOES count as part of the prize pool. They KNOW most folks will just play those free chances on more scratch-offs)
15% is for operational costs (yeah, right)
That leaves 40% of what's left. Out of that, 40% goes to 'higher education' (Palmetto Scholarships and the like) 2% (yes, 2%) goes to K-12 programs. What's left goes to the general fund (AKA the Black Hole...once money goes in, nothing comes out)
But hey, it's the South Carolina Educational Lottery. Who can be against education?
This post was edited on 3/31 12:35 PM by GhostVol
45% is for prizes/payouts (and yes, free tix DOES count as part of the prize pool. They KNOW most folks will just play those free chances on more scratch-offs)
15% is for operational costs (yeah, right)
That leaves 40% of what's left. Out of that, 40% goes to 'higher education' (Palmetto Scholarships and the like) 2% (yes, 2%) goes to K-12 programs. What's left goes to the general fund (AKA the Black Hole...once money goes in, nothing comes out)
But hey, it's the South Carolina Educational Lottery. Who can be against education?
This post was edited on 3/31 12:35 PM by GhostVol
A huge amount goes to the KEES money that pretty much every kid gets unless they are a complete idiot.
About 45% of the money made by the lottery goes to the general fund. The other 55% goes to pay for college scholarships through several programs.
http://www.kylottery.com/apps/about_us/where_the_money_goes.html
http://www.kylottery.com/apps/about_us/where_the_money_goes.html
It kind of makes sense that the Kentucky Lottery would fund scholarships for Kentucky schools.
This post was edited on 4/1 11:55 AM by BlueKel
A few years ago (about 10 or so), we looked at the impact of the KEES program on kids actually being able to go to college. Kids began receiving KEES scholarships around 2000 give or take a year. The max amount they could receive I believe was around 2500 bucks per year. We also looked at the average increases in tuition and other costs over the years. As I recall, we figured that after about 8 or 9 years, cost of attending college increases had canceled out any benefit of the KEES program.
Some would say that tuition was going to increase anyway. IMO, a couple of things happened:
1. Legislators saw that colleges were going to get KEES $ so they didn't fund colleges the way they had in the past. We went through several years when colleges had to make cuts in staff, no pay raises,etc...
2. Some would say the college saw KEES money as "free" money and as a way to make up for $ the legislature did not provide. They could raise tuition rates, housing, food, etc... since kids had a little more money at their disposal.
Bottom line: Kids were no more able to attend college than they had been before KEES. Some will disagree as they take the position that colleges had to increase costs (similar to some that view the need to raise taxes). IMO, colleges should have to demonstrate they've made every cut possible before being considered for additional funding of any type. Had this happened, KEES would have made much more of an impact.
Some would say that tuition was going to increase anyway. IMO, a couple of things happened:
1. Legislators saw that colleges were going to get KEES $ so they didn't fund colleges the way they had in the past. We went through several years when colleges had to make cuts in staff, no pay raises,etc...
2. Some would say the college saw KEES money as "free" money and as a way to make up for $ the legislature did not provide. They could raise tuition rates, housing, food, etc... since kids had a little more money at their disposal.
Bottom line: Kids were no more able to attend college than they had been before KEES. Some will disagree as they take the position that colleges had to increase costs (similar to some that view the need to raise taxes). IMO, colleges should have to demonstrate they've made every cut possible before being considered for additional funding of any type. Had this happened, KEES would have made much more of an impact.
I'll have to go with this one. Everyone knows that the lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math. It is also true that there is an inverse relationship between where lottery money is collected and distributed with the poorest counties having the highest lottery sales and lowest recipients per capita while the wealthiest buy fewer tickets but benefit the most.
Isn't it ironic that college was much more affordable before we started raising money to help pay for college?
The state once funded nearly 90% of the cost to operate the state funded universities and colleges, today it is closer to only 10%.
I agree that the lottery is a voluntary tax on people who don't seem to understand the odds. I don't know if I agree that the poorest counties buy the most tickets per capita. Jefferson County is not poor but it is responsible for the most sales (24% of the total) of any county. Yet according to the 2010 census, Jefferson County has only 17% of Kentucky's population. So Jefferson County buys a disproportionate amount of lottery tickets despite being a higher average income county.
John Oliver had a pretty awesome spot on the Lottery. The whole thing is great but if you don't have the time to watch the entire clip, he gets to the allocation of money around the 10:00 mark.
John Oliver on the Lottery
John Oliver on the Lottery
My statement above would be more accurate had I said "zip codes" than "counties".
Actually doing a little research on the subject and there is quite a discrepancy between the counties with the most sales per scholarship dollars awarded. Todd county leads the list buying $25,453 in lottery tickets for every award granted averaging $1,426 per award. Meanwhile McCracken county buys only $739 of tickets for every $1,725 of awarded scholarships.
Now Todd isn't the poorest county in Kentucky...but it ranks 79th in per capita income. McCracken ranks 12th.
Oldham county, the state's wealthiest buys $2,841 in tickets for $1,849 of return.
The state average is $7,120 in sales for $1,639...
Fulton and Christian counties join Todd in counties with > $21,000 of lottery sales for every awarded.
I want to throw my phone every time he comes on iheart. I usually close the app down and restart it but it is getting annoying.
If lottery was to help fund schools then why is my school tax so high now?
House,car,insurance..school board gets it's cut from it.
House,car,insurance..school board gets it's cut from it.
If there was only a machine that you could type a question into a get an answer.
It is pretty easy to fund out that in Kentucky it goes to the KEES scholarships that assist 100% of the kids in Kentucky go to college. The award is based on their grades in high school. With many kids obtaining around 2000 a year for college.
It is pretty easy to fund out that in Kentucky it goes to the KEES scholarships that assist 100% of the kids in Kentucky go to college. The award is based on their grades in high school. With many kids obtaining around 2000 a year for college.
John Oliver - Lottery
Worth watching his bit, he's no John Stuart for political satire but it was funny.