Bring The Lottery To Utah

I grew up in one of the best states of the union, Idaho. It was calm and people looked out for each other on a daily basis. Plus, the drivers were much, much better. In Idaho, they have a state lottery. There aren't any state or private casinos. The Indian Reservations have their casino, but it's nothing huge. The state lottery consists of scratch tickets and the Powerball. The money the state gets from people playing the lottery is used to pay for the roads and for the schools. I grew up around the lottery for 20 years and never once played.

In Utah, there is no lottery. In fact, you can get arrested for just playing online lottery's, I think. Property taxes and gas taxes are used to pay for the schools and roads. It's no surprise that Utah always, always has a budget crisis. The first thing that always gets cut is education. Last year, hundreds of teachers lost their jobs. This year, more are going to lose their jobs. Also, as a result, the school district I live in had to raise property taxes by 20 percent to make up for a shortfall. They're even talking about doing it again.

Transportation never, never gets cut. Each year, they spend billions on their highways, while cutting eduction funding at the same time. In fact, they just announced they are going to build another north-south highway at a total cost of over 1.5 billion dollars. When people cry foul about the money spent on highways, the state comes and says they are creating jobs. I don't call those jobs. Those are gigs. Once the job is over, it's over. They may be creating those jobs, but they are doing it at the expense of teachers jobs. Jobs that have a much, much bigger impact on the future compared to roads with no potholes.

Because the funding for schools and roads is tied to taxes here, they are subject to fluctuations in the overall economy. Education should never depend on the economy of the country. There needs to be a more stable flow of funding for the schools.

Bring in the lottery to Utah. You never, never have to play it, but you can reap the rewards of others playing it. It wouldn't just be the residents who play it either. It could be every traveler to the state, which is a lot. Right now, if you want to play the lottery, you go to Idaho or Nevada. As a result, Utah citizens are helping the school and road budgets for those two states. If you brought the lottery in, the state would be getting constant donations to the road and school budgets. Plus, taxes could be dropped, helping people have more to spend and, therefore, help the economy even more. Right now, if the state needs funding, they raise taxes, which is never popular. With the lottery, the taxes could drop and people would voluntarily be giving money to the state.

Others may say that allowing gambling in the state would make the state a bad place to work. To them I say: "If you don't allow the lottery for those reasons, then you better get rid of all the alcohol and tobacco sales, along with all of the pornography in the state." Of course, they would never do that. For one, the state makes money off tobacco and alcohol taxes. Hello!?!?!?! Bring in the lottery and add another source of income. And just try to get rid of all the porn our there.

I grew up with the lottery and never once played it. But, it always paid for the roads and the schools. Property taxes were low and there were never huge cuts in education funding to fill budget holes. With the lottery in Utah, we could stop subsidizing the education and transportation budgets of other states and start contributing more to our own.