THE LOTTO

THE LOTTO 

When ever I see normal people throw a buck away at a lottery system that is pretty impossible to ever win due to the odds, they state that at the very least the money goes to taxes for the schools. Well, not really...

California’s state auditor says the California Lottery owes schools a whopping $36 million. An audit released Tuesday says an assessment of the California State Lottery found the agency has not been increasing its funding for education in proportion to its increases in net revenue, and as a result, did not pay $36 million to California schools for the fiscal year 2017-18.

 Given that the school budget is a mess and the LAUSD went on strike for 30 days last year, costing the district $151 million in attendance revenue, perhaps that school district is a bit hard up for some way to cover that amount. One would think, at the very least. 

This is why I could never get behind the justification that lotto sales go to help fund education. Because by the end of the day, greed always kicks in. ALWAYS.  I stand by the idea that the Lottery is just a tax on the stupid, but that implies that tax is collected and in this case, that amount of money just shows you it doesn't.

I shouldn't be so mean to those who play the lotto. It's really one of those things that we have become socially acceptable vices and a much cleaner form of gambling addiction. But let's call a spade a spade.

A lot of folks feel like that is their means to pull themselves out of poverty. That it's their retirement plan. Once their numbers hit, oh man, everything is going to change. In reality it's just bleeding you dry dollar by dollar. Stuff that annoys me is when an office pool is put together with that sweet sweet mega millions pot. But it's just another way to control the poor.

I know, I turn everything into a social commentary or class warfare, but this one is sort of there, ya know. Having our schools funded with tax dollars that they are owed by an entity that is all about generating a taxation from the poor, is problematic in itself and passing the buck from a lot of higher tax bracket who now have a lot more tax bailouts.  Okay, I'm getting long winded here. The point is that with so much more tax relief given to the folks who are more able to help pay for school taxes, pushing and continuing to entice the poor to play the lotto while the lottery board not kicking the school's end to them is the very definition of injustice and class warfare.

So perhaps stop scratching those scratchers, cause the money isn't going to where your feel good ideas it is going.