"Lottery's burst of spending eats into aid for localities" by Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | December 17, 2008
State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill often says that the Massachusetts Lottery has enjoyed unprecedented growth under his leadership. But a review of lottery records shows that exploding administrative costs at the agency have soaked up a large portion of the new revenue, limiting the amount it shares with Massachusetts cities and towns.
Since Cahill took over five years ago, administrative spending has ballooned by nearly 50 percent, with higher costs for advertising, telephones, computers, and lottery ticket printing, including outside contracts signed with some of the treasurer's campaign contributors.
On Cahill's watch, the lottery increased its ranks of employees by nearly 10 percent. It bought 233 cellphones and BlackBerries for employees. It replaced most of its fleet of take-home vehicles for employees, spending $1.25 million to buy 73 new vans, crossover wagons, cars, and a Jeep in the last two years alone.
Were you able to get a new car this year, readers?
The lottery also agreed to a more costly lease to pay for $1.3 million in renovations at its Braintree headquarters, including a slick upgrade of the lobby. Visitors can now watch Keno and Mass Millions advertisements on two large flat-screen televisions as they lounge on lime-green art deco couches while a receptionist works under the glow of blue glass pendant lamps.
Cahill said in an interview that much of the spending was required to boost the lottery to a record $4.7 billion in gross sales this year, and that it was "very reasonable and very fiscally responsible." He added that the state lottery has the lowest overhead compared with revenue of any in the nation, as measured by a trade publication, La Fleur's World Almanac.
These guys just don't see it, do they?
The "PUBLIC SERVANTS" actually think it is THEIR MONEY!!!!!!
Even so, Cahill said he would not approve such an increase in spending now, during an economic recession. "Would we buy new cars today? No," he said. "Would we [redecorate] today? Probably not."
Because we would HANG YOU if you did, right?
In all, the administrative costs at the lottery shot up $33.4 million over five years, to $101.4 million in 2008. Over the same period, net revenue grew by $57 million, to $1 billion. The rise in administrative costs gobbled up most of that growth, leaving an increase of only $23.5 million available for aid payments to cities and towns. (The vast majority of gross revenues are used to pay winnings to lottery players.)
That is a LIE!!!! It is SPLIT 50-50!!
The winner gets half and the STATE KEEPS HALF for aid to cities and towns!!!!
The lottery is RIPPING YOU OFF in more ways than ONE!!!
Making matters worse for cities and towns, the lottery is now burdened with higher administrative costs as the national economic recession reduces the public's appetite for gambling, taking a bite out of overall lottery proceeds and putting a greater pinch on local aid.
Cahill said the lottery got "some good deals" on the cars, which he said were needed to replace an aging fleet prone to breakdowns. And he said the lobby was redecorated in an effort to make it "more enticing" for visitors and winning ticket holders who come in to claim their money.
"We want people to have a good experience," he said.
As we SELL THEM a RIGGED GAME!!! The ARROGANCE is ASTONISHING!!!!
The improvements to the building were not directly paid for by the lottery, Cahill added. He said the lottery's landlord agreed to pay for the renovations and in return raised the rent by $41,243 a month for five years.
The results of the Globe review of lottery operations raised concerns among some observers, three of whom called for an investigation of Cahill's management of the lottery.
"I think the treasurer is running the lottery more for the benefit of its administrators and employees than the taxpayers of Massachusetts," said David Tuerck, an economist and executive director of the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University, a nonpartisan think tank. "The state needs to put the lottery on the list of agencies that need a thorough investigation of how they are run, with a view toward vastly improving performance."
Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation said the lottery has virtually escaped the tough scrutiny endured by other state agencies because it is considered a source of revenue, rather than an expense like most other state departments. Widmer, like Tuerck, thinks that should change.
"Especially in this current fiscal crisis and with lottery revenues expected to decline, it's critical that the entire cost structure be examined," he said....
And look whose backs they are balancing the budget with: the blind, mentally ill, kids, and cripples!!
Of course, "one of the governor's pet projects, the $3 million Commonwealth Corporation, is only taking a 5 percent trim."
I mean, it's okay to be "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."
And that is not counting the troubles at the Turnpike!
"The authority was attempting to renegotiate terms of a complex financial deal with the banking giant UBS. Known as a swaption, the arrangement could force the authority to pay out a $450 million lump sum"
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?
"Town officials... are trying to decide how much of a property tax break to offer and how they can secure state funding for infrastructure improvements.... although it could take several years for the studio to realize its potential"
Also see: Hollywood, Massachusetts
Hollywood (East) Disses Veterans
More Mass. $$$ to Movie Makers
Sorry, that wasn't it:
"$5m in tax breaks going to IBM for Littleton project
The Massachusetts Economic Assistance Coordinating Council approved $5 million in state and local tax breaks for IBM Corp., which recently began a $63 million expansion in Littleton. IBM vice president Bob McDonald said the company plans to create 42 jobs at the site over the next decade. McDonald said the computer giant, based in Armonk, N.Y., has already begun renovating a building and hopes to move into it next month. McDonald said the tax incentives were important, but the company would have gone forward with the expansion without them. IBM has 4,000 employees in Massachusetts, including about 2,000 in Littleton (Boston Globe October 30 2008)."
Yup, but SERVICES NEED to be CUT and TAXES RAISED!!
That's COMPASSIONATE LIBERALISM?
Across the state, communities rely on lottery revenue to help pay for everything from firetrucks to library books; the unrestricted income helps keep a lid on local property tax increases....
Oh, yeah, property taxes:
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And wait until you get a load of this: Mass. Property Taxes Rising
But examining the agency's inner workings may not be easy. The lottery's financial records, which are public under state law, are difficult to obtain. Complete financial statements are not available online, and the ones distributed to those who request them do not provide details about what the agency is buying.
Can you say LOOTING OPERATION?
In response to a Globe public records request in October for a breakdown of administrative expenses, lottery officials issued a three-sentence reply, saying an "itemized breakdown is not kept by the Massachusetts State Lottery." The lottery later provided a code book to cross-reference expenses through a laborious manual process. Even then, the codes described broad categories, such as maintenance, but gave no details about what was maintained. Last week, lottery officials provided some details about the spending.
What are they trying to HIDE?
Among the new annual costs are $10 million in additional advertising, $9 million in higher telephone and telecommunications expenses - including $84,000 for employee cellphones - roughly $5 million for ticket printing, and another $5 million in employee salaries. Employee benefits and insurance accounts for $3 million more, and the remainder is split between postage for ticket delivery, employee cars, office supplies, and building improvements and rental.
Payroll costs climbed 24 percent to $27.4 million for 424 employees in 2008, up from $22 million for 388 employees in 2003. Lottery officials said none of Cahill's decisions were made without approval of the Legislature, the governor, and the lottery commission. The commission is composed of the state comptroller, secretary of public safety, and two others appointed by the governor.
But we have to gut services and raise taxes, Mass. residents. Wow, you lefties really like taking a reaming, don't you?
A spokesman for Governor Deval Patrick, Kyle Sullivan, placed responsibility on Cahill, saying the "treasurer and the staff at the lottery have primary day-to-day responsibility for managing the lottery and its budget."
Cahill, a former Quincy city councilor and Norfolk County treasurer, was elected to the treasurer's office in 2002 and reelected to a second term in 2006. In addition to overseeing state investments and the lottery, he also runs the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, Abandoned Property Division, and Pension Reserves Investment Management Board.
Almost immediately after taking office, Cahill pushed the Legislature to restore millions of dollars in funding for lottery advertising that had been cut in the 1990s because critics said the advertisements targeted the poor. The lottery now spends more than $10 million per year on advertising.
What, you expect the RICH to pay for the general welfre?
They are too busy TAKING TAXPAYER HANDOUTS and TAXBREAKS!!!!
Isn't nice that the LIBERAL STATE cares so much for its poor? What an unfunny JOKE Democrats have become!!
And here is the CHERRY on TOP!
The company that has received the multimillion-dollar contract to promote the lottery is Hill, Holliday, a large advertising firm whose executives have been major contributors to Cahill's campaign fund. In 2004, the year after the agency won its first three-year contract, executives and their spouses contributed some $20,000 to the treasurer. They have since donated an additional $26,000, records show. Such campaign contributions from vendors to politicians are routine throughout state government....
Yeah, the BUYING of POLITICIANS is ROUTINE here in Massachusetts!
Remind me why that Illinois governor is in such trouble? Seems like (as always) ARBIRTARY and SELECTIVE VISION is performed by my Zionist-controlled AmeriKan War Daily! Censorship at an AmeriKan War Daily? Gasp!
The chief executive of the company that prints scratch tickets for the lottery,
The Globe reported earlier this year that Scientific Games also has paid one of Cahill's chief fund-raisers Thomas F. Kelly, more than $132,000 in consulting fees at the same time Cahill was steering contracts to the company. Kelly, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing, has not returned repeated calls to his Boston office.
Oh, so the TREASURER is STEEPED in CORRUPTION!!!!
Great, just great! Now wonder this state is in such shit shape!
Cahill says that his business decisions are not influenced by who contributed to his campaign coffers.
Did he say it with a straight face? Pffffft!
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