Originally posted by seacapt Our new governer Bev Perdue (Democrat) changed the way lottery money is handled. Money from the "education" lottery now goes into the general fund.
She has also instituted "sin taxes" on alcohol and tobacco products. After Jan 1 2010 alot of bars will be going out of business because smoking in bars and restaurants will be banned.
Lotteries tend to be sold on the basis they'll pay for education, then when people don't want to pay taxes, they end up having to get looted to keep the state running.
Same with a lot of 'sin taxes:' these are used to claim they are funding various programs at the levels you'd see if they didn't deter their own revenue source, thus causing those (usually 'librul' ) programs to fall short of the promised budget.
With tobacco, of course, this does have other benefits, since it does seem to reduce smoking, but it does tend to choke its own revenue stream, as well as meaning the poorest people who tend to pay the most of these taxes just have less money to spend in their local economies. It's one of the few taxes a government can 'sell,' though.
Basically, the lottery and such 'sin taxes' are regressive in economic impact, and you bet it affects small business. Last I was through North Carolina, though, tobacco was taxed a whole lot less than anyone else, (Cause they have big tobacco there) so they've been behind the usual, anyway.
As for selling grades, WTF. That's just wrong on so many levels.
How bout funding the schools rather than hitting the kids up for their lunch money?