Published: December 29, 2007 11:48 pm            

No big lottery surprise

EDMOND — State Superintendent Sandy Garrett’s recent call for the Legislature to address the state lottery shortfall is one more clarion bell for bringing voters back to reality.

Garrett said Thursday that she plans to send a supplemental budget request to lawmakers after the January meeting of the state Board of Education because a $4.6 million shortfall in lottery funding is expected. This will be the second consecutive year that lottery funding has fallen short. It’s starting to seem like a bad broken record. From the get-go, projections on how much funding the lottery would bring to education in Oklahoma were never realistic and have been revised ad nauseum.

We agree with Garrett’s call that lottery funds should be distributed to school districts on a per-pupil basis and the districts be given discretion to spend lottery funds based on their individual needs. Not every district is alike, but they all have continuing needs often not met by state appropriations.

Most disturbing is voters were promised that education funding would remain at its current levels and that lottery funds would in effect be additional revenue. However, we find the state Board of Education and school districts trying to budget on these revenue projections, because as we all know recurring money is not really bonus money. It becomes part of the normal budgeting process. Shortfalls create nightmare headaches for our school administrators.

This is exactly why the state lottery was bad public policy in the first place.

Another disturbing trend is that last year, schools absorbed a $17 million shortfall after lawmakers earmarked the lottery funds to pay for the $3,000 teacher pay raise. This year, lawmakers said lottery funds will be sent to schools’ state aid, meaning this year’s shortfall, which could balloon before the fiscal year ends in June, will directly impact schools’ operational budgets already in place. This is unacceptable.

We recommend that if the state keeps the lottery, then educators only should budget for half of that year’s projected revenue. Then, if by some miracle, the lottery does better than expected, those funds really will seem like a bonus. Until then, we hope that lawmakers make this a priority when they return to session in February to resolve how to make up this year’s shortfall.

        

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