July 16, 2007

Found money?

Like the $15 billion deficit bond Schwarzenegger proposed shortly after taking office, his lease-the-lottery idea has the feel of something that the Democrats and more than a few Republicans will find difficult to resist. Even as they take shots at it and insist that they don't like to use gambling, and gamblers, to support essential state services, lawmakers can't ignore the possibility of $30 billion or more in found money. Today, as reported elsewhere on this site, Speaker Nunez is saying the lottery idea might fetch $3.5 billion a year in revenues above and beyond what they would need to guarantee to the schools. And that number just happens to match the amount that Schwarzenegger has penciled into his universal health care proposal from taxes on doctors and hospitals, taxes that no one at this point believes have a chance of passing in the Legislature.

Posted by dweintraub on July 16, 2007 12:54 PM