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What is the Lotto Bill in Colorado and Why Does it Matter?

A Colorado lawmaker wants to let lottery money be used for education. This lawmaker is Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg a Republican. He wants voters to decide in 2020 where certain lottery dollars should go. Senator Sonnenberg wants lottery money to go towards public education. The money would allow the State Legislature to divert lottery proceeds from the Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) fund to education budget. In 2018, GOCO received $66,250,998 from lottery proceeds.(Denver Post) It has spent more than $1.2 billion, according to its website. Those dollars have built 900 miles of trails, upgraded 56 playgrounds and added more than 47,000 acres into the state parks system. The lotto fund reported taking in a little more than $66.2 million. It’s a lot of money, but it’s less than 1 percent of the state’s $7 billion education budget. (Denver Post)


Pros & Cons
There are many pros and cons to this bill proposal. One Colorado resident said, “It's not helping to just throw more money on the fire. Already a large portion of the budget goes to education.” Another Colorado resident said that, “School districts, as all government entities, need to be continually challenged to be more efficient with the money they are allotted. And to start cutting some of the “nice, but not necessary” programs. It seems clear that taxpayers are at their limits and don’t want to give any more” The pros would be that, money would be allocated as an investment towards, children’s futures, also helping children to become contributing tax payers. In turn, this bill would also save taxpayers additional taxes for funding public education. 
Arguments 
There are many different arguments over this bill, Senator Sonnenberg argues, “Let’s allow the voters to decide which is a higher priority – education or recreation.” (Denver Post) Sonnenberg says that there is enough soccer fields and outhouses, part of the money should go to children's education. Some will say that the marijuana tax should cover the education costs, but this would just give extra assistance and prioritize public education throughout the state. This has become a difficult issue because lawmakers have already assigned the tax revenue from legal marijuana to school infrastructure not other things, such as salaries.
Outcome
In the current Colorado legislature environment both chambers are controlled by the Democrats. Sonnenburg says that he is concerned that the resolution will either never be heard or die in committee — if for no reason other than because it was introduced by a Republican. This bill will likely pit environmentalists against education-funding activists.There are no rules that require a resolution to be heard either in committee or on the floor. Therefore, depending on how Senate Leroy Garcia(D) views it, the bill could easily just sit on the Senate Secretary’s desk for the remainder of this session. Or It can be assigned to a committee where it has a good chance of getting killed.
Works Cited
  1. Staver, Anna. “Colorado Lawmaker Wants to Let Lottery Money Be Used for Education.” The Denver Post, The Denver Post, 12 Feb. 2019, www.denverpost.com/2019/02/11/colorado-lottery-money-education-outdoors/.
  2. “Finances.” Finances | Great Outdoors Colorado, www.goco.org/about-us/finances. Accessed 15 Oct. 2019

Comments

  1. LauraOctober 22, 2019 at 5:01 PM

    Jack, you did a great job explaining the lotto bill and how it could be used for education. I think such usage would be useful especially for public universities where cost of attendance is very high and unaffordable for some families. I can, however, also see legislators on both sides arguing that the lottery money could be used for more urgent causes.

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