VOTE "YES" ON LOTTERY FUNDS GOING TO MISSOURI EDUCATION

Constitutional Amendment #11:

This amendment would earmark proceeds from the state lottery and subsequently authorized gambling for public and higher education in Missouri. Presently, lottery proceeds are deposited into the state's General Revenue Fund and appropriated for state services and programs, including education. Controversy has surrounded earmarking of lottery funds for education since the lottery was approved in 1984. While some lottery advocates indicated the funds raised by the games would be used for education, ballot language contained no such language. While this measure would earmark the lottery proceeds, it would not necessarily increase the amount of funding that is provided for education in Missouri.

Some history is in order.

In 1984, a lottery proposal came before Missouri voters for approval at the November General Election. The matter had become an issue earlier that year during the Republican primary for governor. Then-St. Louis County Executive Gene McNary, a Republican gubernatorial hopeful confined to regional appeal within the St. Louis media market, was anxious for a popular issue to latch onto, one that enjoyed statewide appeal. McNary's campaign did some polling and discovered that a lottery enjoyed broad support within the Missouri electorate. McNary's pollster reported this further datum: the idea of a lottery enjoyed truly overwhelming support if voters surveyed were told that the proceeds would be dedicated to education.

Bingo: McNary made a lottery, with the net proceeds earmarked for education, a key plank in his platform. The ballot proposal submitted to voters contained no such earmarking provision; the net proceeds would merely go into the state's general revenue fund.

Then Attorney General (now Governor) John Ashcroft did not favor a lottery. His official position during the campaign was, however, that if Missourians were to enact a lottery, the net proceeds should be earmarked for education. Ashcroft went on to relatively easy victories that year, in both the August primary election, and in the November general election. That same month, November 1984, voters approved the lottery by a wide margin, sans any earmarking of funds. The net proceeds would go into the general fund.

I believe this episode contains the seeds of a condition plaguing Missouri government, and Missouri public education, ever since. Because the ballot proposition voters approved that November did not earmark the proceeds, it fell to the legislature to deal with the issue of earmarking these funds. Historically, legislators have been reluctant to earmark funds for any purpose. In this case, as in so many others, legislators refused to do so.

Because voters had a vague idea that the lottery they approved had provided funds earmarked for education, a significant bloc of Missouri voters have felt misled, or even betrayed, ever since. There can be no doubt that this misunderstanding helped to defeat last year's ill-fated Proposition B, an effort to commit nearly $400 million more, annually, to Missouri education.

For this reason, if for no other, it seems to me important to vote "YES" on Constitutional Amendment #11. Is it a panacea for the ills of public education in Missouri? Certainly not. Is it all our hard-pressed teachers need? Clearly, no.

In fact, it is even possible that, having approved such a measure, Missouri voters will feel they have done their part for education funding, and refuse to listen to further appeals for legitimate funding needs. It would be a shame if that were the result.

What approval of this measure would mean, though, is an important first step in restoring trust and confidence and integrity in our system of financing public education, in the process leveling with taxpayers. It's part of an all-important bond of trust and credibility in our state budgetary scheme.

It's time to give Missouri voters what they thought they had back in 1984. Vote "YES" on Constitutional Amendment #11, the proposal to earmark lottery proceeds.