Thread: TX - Perry makes bold proposals, suggests selling lottery

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/16636854.htm

Perry makes bold proposals, suggests selling lottery
KELLEY SHANNON
Associated Press

AUSTIN - Showing a different side of himself, Texas Gov. Rick Perry made bold proposals Tuesday to spend billions of dollars to help the uninsured and fight cancer - and to pay for it by selling the state lottery.

Perry, a conservative Republican known for his commitment to property tax cuts and controlling spending, made the sweeping health care initiatives the centerpiece of his State of the State speech to the Legislature.

His past addresses to Texas lawmakers have focused on precise budget and program recommendations and pleas to repair a broken education funding system. But with a new school finance plan in place and a record surplus, Perry this time branched out in a big way.

"This moment in time is a unique opportunity to address great challenges and build the foundation for a future of unparalleled prosperity," said Perry, viewed in some circles as a potential vice presidential nominee in 2008.

He proposed increased tax relief, property tax appraisal relief, higher education funding, state budgeting transparency and more emphasis on rehabilitating non-violent offenders. He said he agrees with Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst there should be tougher penalties for sex offenders who prey on children.

With his lottery sale proposal, Perry said he's tapping a source of funding for key programs that won't dry up or cost the state general revenue. Perry estimated a sale price of at least $14 billion.

Perry said he'd use the proceeds to establish a $2.7 billion endowment to help more Texans get health insurance and create a $3 billion fund for the fight against cancer. Both would generate ongoing revenue, he said.

Perry also said the sale could provide more than $8 billion to be dedicated to a public education endowment, providing $800 million a year for public schools. However, the state-run lottery currently contributes $1 billion per year to public schools.

No state has sold or leased its lottery, although several are considering it. Last month, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels proposed leasing the state lottery for 30 years to pay for scholarships aimed at keeping Indiana's top college graduates in-state.

In Texas, the lottery reported more than $3.77 billion in sales in the 2006 fiscal year, the most in its 14-year history.

Several legislative leaders were skeptical or noncommittal about Perry's lottery idea.

Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick, who controls the House agenda and would be key to passing the legislation, wouldn't say whether he agreed with the plan.

"I'm certainly in favor of cancer research," Craddick said. "I don't know whether selling the lottery is what we need to do or not."

Dewhurst, leader of the Senate, said depending on the rate of return for the proposed $8 billion education endowment, the state could lose $1 billion for schools over the course of a two-year budget cycle.

"I'm not saying anything other than we'll look at this, but people voted to have the lottery used on public education, and from a practical standpoint I'm concerned about how we're going to fill this hole," he said.

Sen. Steve Ogden of Bryan, the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, doubted whether the lottery would sell for as much as the governor thought.

"And if it really is $14 billion, then I think it's worth looking at," Ogden said. "It's got a lot of potential warts on it but $14 billion is far more than I thought that lottery was worth."

The lottery was authorized by a state constitutional amendment approved by Texas voters in November 1991. Some lawmakers wondered whether it would also take a constitutional amendment to sell the lottery to a private firm and what that would mean for gambling overall.

"Basically by privatizing the lottery you legalize private-run gambling operations in Texas," Ogden said.

In other parts of his speech, Perry repeated his request for $100 million in state money for border security and said Congress should pass a guest worker program for legal immigrants.

He complained about what he said were unfair federal actions or inaction in Washington on health care funding, border security and environmental regulations.

And, he defended his executive order making Texas the first state in the nation to require girls to get a vaccine that prevents the spread of the virus that is the leading cause of cervical cancer. He has come under fire from some fellow conservatives who say lawmakers should have been allowed to air the issue.

Critics say the vaccine requirement interferes with parental decisions.

"If I err, I'm going to err on the side of protecting life," Perry said.

Promoting his comprehensive cancer fight initiative, Perry said while there are hundreds of thousands of cancer survivors in the state, there will be 95,000 Texans diagnosed with the disease this year and 34,000 who will lose the fight.

"These people are our neighbors, our colleagues, our co-workers, our husbands, our wives, our precious children," he said.

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Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno, Liz Austin Peterson and April Castro contributed to this report.

Kinky Freedman is looking better every day.

Originally, the lotto was set up by Dem. Gov. Ann Richards to fund education. Bush unseated her and preceeded to leave children behind by filtering off the money. Now Perry wants to sell it off?

Perry = Bush Bush = Perry Seeing double yet?

Dixie

The bastard appears to be hell bent on parting out the state. It may be time for some of us Texans to spend a little more effort working on the home front.

Originally Posted by CrocketsGhost

The bastard appears to be hell bent on parting out the state. It may be time for some of us Texans to spend a little more effort working on the home front.

I still can't believe y'all re-elected him! I thought the TTC was going to kill him.

Originally Posted by PinestrawGuys

Originally Posted by CrocketsGhost

The bastard appears to be hell bent on parting out the state. It may be time for some of us Texans to spend a little more effort working on the home front.

I still can't believe y'all re-elected him! I thought the TTC was going to kill him.

I suspect that we did not re-elect him, if you know what I mean.

Your right CG! He only got 39% of the vote!

Dixie

Originally Posted by CrocketsGhost

I suspect that we did not re-elect him, if you know what I mean.

Unfortunately I think I do...

Are you saying Crocket, you think your votes are not being counted because of the electronic voting machines? We all need to do something about these things before the 2008 election> What is the best way for the average citizen to get anything done about this?

Money for nothin' and he wants to cash it out? Looking bad guys.

Originally Posted by nittygritty

Are you saying Crocket, you think your votes are not being counted because of the electronic voting machines? We all need to do something about these things before the 2008 election> What is the best way for the average citizen to get anything done about this?

That's what I'm saying. The election results were so far out of whack with what I was hearing people say that it's not even funny, and I am usually within a few percentage points predicting election results. I was off in this case by some 20 percentage points.