Here in NC, the state has finally started a lottery. I tried to look online to see what states don’t have a [tag]lottery[/tag], but got sidetracked, and never actually figured it out. I think there’s like 8 or 9 states that still don’t have a lottery. (If you do know, post a comment saying so.)
I guess it was only a matter of time before we finally got a lottery here. Whenever one of the big lotteries (Powerball or Mega Millions) was pretty high, it made news around here. They would show people (and their money) from NC going to VA or SC to get the tickets. So why not just keep the money in state? And at least give the impression that a lot of the proceeds will be going to education. They have even gone to the extent of calling it the “North Carolina Education Lottery.” Scratch off tickets start today, then the other parts like Powerball starts later.
I have a feeling that Sharon will buy a ticket every once in a while. But I don’t think I’ll be buying that many tickets.
[tags]North Carolina, News[/tags]
bastone.org 
4 replies on “A Dollar & A Dream”
it looks like there are 9 states without a lottery.
Joe – you sound so negative about the lottery! Haven’t you seen what a great job it’s done in NYS keeping the state debt free and our school taxes down?
I’m not really negative toward the lottery. It was really just a matter of time before the powers that be in Raliegh woke up and realized there’s a lot of money to be made in this lottery thing.
Now I thought that NYS was looking at about a $2-4 billion surplus this year. Of course, they wouldn’t pay down debt with that, just cut taxes to their buddies. I believe there was a proposal to cut the sales tax on buying private aircraft. (Those private aircraft owners, they need your help!) So instead of doing something smart with it, they’ll just blow through it and probably work their way right back into more debt.
By the way, did NYS pass their budget on time this year?
You could be right about NYS having a surplus. Not surprisingly, little is mentioned about that, probably for the exact reasons you mentioned. And yes the budget was passed on time this year – 2 years in a row!