How's it feel, looters?
"Lottery earnings expected to decline; $17m reduction forecast in '08 as economy sputters" by Matt Viser, Globe Staff | October 23, 2008
The state is bracing for a 1.5 percent drop in lottery revenues this year, another troubling result of the economic crisis that could erode a key source of state aid for cities and towns, Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill said yesterday.
If Cahill's predictions come true, state lottery revenues would decline by $75 million. The net loss is expected to be only about $17 million, because most of the money from lottery sales is used in payouts to winners.
"I am not complaining about people spending less on the lottery," Cahill said. "It's probably a good thing that they're being smart and they're not trying to game or gamble their way out of their problems. . . . But it has an impact."
Yeah, maybe basing an economy on ripping off poor people wasn't such a good idea!!!! Sure paid for enough advertising for your shell games though!!
Cahill said he would immediately cut the lottery's $96 million operating budget by $3 million, averting layoffs but trimming costs from things like an antilitter program and bonuses that go to the highest-selling agents.
Why do they ALWAYS WAIT to TRIM STUFF? Then they booga-booga us on budget cuts!!!! I'm sick of the shit shovel, you fucks!!!
It would be up to the Legislature to decide whether to replace the remaining $14 million shortfall with money from the rainy day fund or some other source.
State is GOING BROKE and BORROWING INTO OBLIVION, and yet we got "RAINY DAY FUNDS?"
"In one sense, it's small potatoes," said Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. "But it's just more bad news.
"It's another example of how state revenues are getting hit on every front," he said. "What's striking about this fiscal crisis is that literally every source of revenue is being hit: sales, corporate taxes, capital gains, and the lottery."
There is THAT MAN AGAIN!!!! The pro-tax, pro-business guy is a GLOBE REGULAR!!! I wonder where the ANTITAX VOICES ARE in the Globe's pages, because I seldom see them.
Cahill, who was one of the biggest proponents of licensing casinos in Massachusetts, also suggested yesterday that casinos would not be an easy sell now. The current economic downturn has shown that gambling is not immune from financial problems, he said.
Like it was some sort of golden goose to begin with? These guys are more naive (or are liars) than I am!!!!!
"Even the states that have casinos are struggling with ways to pay for their budgets," Cahill said. "I know the debate will come back up; there's no way it won't come back up. But I hope we're not seduced by the lure of easy money."
Your shitting me, right?
Lottery revenues, which were up 2.2 percent just five weeks ago, are now down 1.3 percent over last year, said Cahill, attributing the decrease to residents cutting back on everything from gasoline to groceries. Scratch tickets, which represent about 70 percent of lottery revenues, are taking one of the biggest hits. The scarcity this year of large jackpots, which dramatically boost sales, also has hurt revenues.
Translation: The state GAVE AWAY LESS and TOOK MORE $$$. That's the MO!!
In public remarks delivered during a luncheon at the Seaport Hotel, Cahill also criticized the governor and the Legislature for not seeing some of the early warning signs of an economic downturn. "Unfortunately we didn't take some of the steps that I think we should have taken - put more money in our rainy day account, cut spending so that we weren't in a structural deficit, and pare back the growth of programs in the state," Cahill said. "That is what has led us to where we are today." --more--"
Yeah, it all SOUNDS GOOD, until you realize (how many times I gotta post it, readers?):
Of course, "flushing . . . millions of dollars away supporting a highly profitable industry" when it comes to $300 million in taxpayer dollars for Hollywood is o.k., even as the price of a school lunch rises; paying $13 million for a computer software system that could have cost less than $3 million is all right because the winner was a close friend of the House speaker, even as my poorer-than-dirt district "has been struggling to close a $2 million budget gap."; the lottery shelling out "millions of dollars" for sports tickets for "lottery officials, their family members, and friends" is fine, even as schools are closing; making interest payments to banks to the tune of "a staggering $22 billion" for the Big Pit, as we call it around here, is required, even as bridges are neglected across the state; and again, paying off banks like UBS, who can "demand repayment of an additional $2 million a month beginning in January" while also receiving a "$179 million payment," while the state pension fund loses $1 billion dollars -- which still didn't stop the executive director from carving himself a nice "$64,000 bonus on top of his $322,000 annual salary."
Oh, and did I not mention the $1 BILLION dollar giveaway to the pharmaceutical corporations, even though "it's never been easy to turn a profit in biotech?" Flush that money away, too, taxpayer. Of course, the war looters were next in line for a handout. And should the state be appropriating money for a "multimillion-dollar reconstruction" of golf courses?
Nor is it RECKLESS to BORROW the STATE INTO OBLIVION so they can PAY INTEREST to BANKS while SITTING ON $2 BILLION DOLLARS!
Need one final insult, Mass. taxpayers?
See: Massachusetts Gives More Money to Hollywood
Don't you just get SICK of the BULLSHIT?!!!!
