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> especially if it's earmarked for childhood education. If it's earmarked for childhood education then don't be surprised if other childhood education funds a

> especially if it's earmarked for childhood education. If it's earmarked for childhood education then don't be surprised if other childhood education funds are reallocated elsewhere.

xxpor 5y ago
They won't be in WA. They've been underfunding education for years and are under a state Supreme Court mandate to increase funding. I'm not 100% sure that's still in effect but my property taxes nearly doubled 2017->2018.
mjparrott 5y ago
Haha yes ... earmarking funds for noble causes is the ultimate fake out. Lottery money all goes to noble causes right, right?
- cmckn 5y ago
  Depends on your state, but I guarantee the information is available to you. You can ask your state representative for more information if you're curious. Here's the 2020 financial report for WA's lottery: https://walottery.com/About/assets/docs/20AnnualReport.pdf https://walottery.com/About/assets/docs/20AnnualReport.pdf Page 31 is probably what you're looking for. The majority of payments ($141 million) went to the Washington Opportunity Pathways Account, relevant statute here: https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=28B.76.526 https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=28B.76.526
  - lacksconfidence 5y ago
    The concern is usually that (made up numbers) school is budgeted at 100M/yr from the general fund. Then they get a lottery that provides 30M/yr, and 100% goes to the schools. Now the schools have 130M/yr right? But the worry is instead they reduce the funds from the general budget to 70M. The lottery money all went to the schools, but the extra 30M went to the general fund.
    - loeg 5y ago
      Yeah, money is fungible. Earmarking for a specific cause X just means less of X's funding comes from the general fund.
      - cmckn 5y ago
        You could think of it that way, but funds such as those created by the lottery are less discretionary than the general fund -- so isn't this a good thing?

> especially if it's earmarked for childhood education. If it's earmarked for childhood education then don't be surprised if other childhood education funds are reallocated elsewhere.

xxpor 5y ago

They won't be in WA. They've been underfunding education for years and are under a state Supreme Court mandate to increase funding. I'm not 100% sure that's still in effect but my property taxes nearly doubled 2017->2018.

mjparrott 5y ago

Haha yes ... earmarking funds for noble causes is the ultimate fake out. Lottery money all goes to noble causes right, right?

cmckn 5y ago
Depends on your state, but I guarantee the information is available to you. You can ask your state representative for more information if you're curious. Here's the 2020 financial report for WA's lottery: https://walottery.com/About/assets/docs/20AnnualReport.pdf https://walottery.com/About/assets/docs/20AnnualReport.pdf Page 31 is probably what you're looking for. The majority of payments ($141 million) went to the Washington Opportunity Pathways Account, relevant statute here: https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=28B.76.526 https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=28B.76.526
- lacksconfidence 5y ago
  The concern is usually that (made up numbers) school is budgeted at 100M/yr from the general fund. Then they get a lottery that provides 30M/yr, and 100% goes to the schools. Now the schools have 130M/yr right? But the worry is instead they reduce the funds from the general budget to 70M. The lottery money all went to the schools, but the extra 30M went to the general fund.
  - loeg 5y ago
    Yeah, money is fungible. Earmarking for a specific cause X just means less of X's funding comes from the general fund.
    - cmckn 5y ago
      You could think of it that way, but funds such as those created by the lottery are less discretionary than the general fund -- so isn't this a good thing?