Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested Tuesday that he will ask lawmakers to lease the California Lottery when he issues his revised budget proposal next week.
The governor spoke to reporters after celebrating a $70 million donation to the California Community Colleges, offering the lottery lease as a "creative" solution to raise revenues for schools and other state services.
Schwarzenegger said last week the budget deficit could be as large as $20 billion in the next fiscal year, though he conceded Tuesday "the numbers change all the time."
"I will be making a proposal and it will show that we will have some severe cuts," Schwarzenegger said, "and also I will recommend to go and be creative and look for revenues, because we have the lottery out there. And as you know, I have now for a long time recommended that we use the lottery, that we license it out, and we really can produce much more money for the state, for education and other areas. And I think that now because we are in an emergency situation, legislators are looking at it in a much more serious way, which I welcome.”
Gubernatorial press secretary Aaron McLear said there have been no final decisions on what the May revision will include.
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