{"id":126361,"date":"2016-02-11T18:35:37","date_gmt":"2016-02-12T01:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=126361"},"modified":"2016-02-11T18:35:39","modified_gmt":"2016-02-12T01:35:39","slug":"bill-to-alter-lottery-scholarship-funding-advances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/02\/bill-to-alter-lottery-scholarship-funding-advances\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill to alter lottery scholarship funding advances"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_126372\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-126372\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/3156763_web_021116XGR_30_tonedCMYK-771x503.jpg\" alt=\"John Arthur Smith\" width=\"771\" height=\"503\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/3156763_web_021116XGR_30_tonedCMYK-771x503.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/3156763_web_021116XGR_30_tonedCMYK-336x219.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/3156763_web_021116XGR_30_tonedCMYK-768x501.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/3156763_web_021116XGR_30_tonedCMYK.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Luis S\u00e1nchez Saturno \/ The New Mexican<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, speaking on the Senate floor Thursday about his bill to remove the requirement of 30 percent of gross lottery revenue going to scholarships.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>State senators approved a bill <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1868012514\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday<\/span><\/span> that would require the ailing New Mexico Lottery to provide $41 million a year for college scholarships, a move some opponents believe could leave less money for students.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/legislation.aspx?chamber=S&amp;legtype=B&amp;legno=180&amp;year=16\" target=\"_blank\">The bill<\/a>, which cleared the Senate 29-12, would change the fundamental structure of how lottery scholarships are funded.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>. NMPolitics.net is paying for the rights to publish articles about the 2016 legislative session from the newspaper. Help us cover the cost by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/10\/nmpolitics-net-cant-exist-without-your-financial-support\/\" target=\"_blank\">making a donation to NMPolitics.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Under current law, the lottery each month must pay at least 30 percent of the gross revenue from the previous month\u2019s ticket sales to the state lottery tuition fund.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>Pre-profit sales totals for scratcher tickets have declined from $91.4 million in 2007 to $69.8 million in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, the lottery staff has sought a different formula so it can increase spending for advertising and promotions.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, sponsored the bill to remove the requirement of 30 percent of gross revenue going to scholarships. In turn, Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, pushed through an amendment to the bill guaranteeing that $41 million a year would go to college scholarships.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>Fred Nathan, executive director of Think New Mexico, a public policy organization, said the bill senators approved would actually help fewer people attend college.<!--more--><u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe 30 percent minimum requirement has resulted in an additional $9 million per year for scholarships, ensuring that the lottery achieves its statutory purpose of maximizing dollars to scholarships,\u201d Nathan said. \u201cThe $41 million floor will become a ceiling because the lottery does not have an incentive to deliver one penny more to scholarships, even if lottery sales increase.\u201d<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>The compromise brokered by Ivey-Soto drew support and opposition from fellow Democrats.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, voted for the bill. \u201cI think it\u2019s important that we keep money coming into that fund,\u201d she said.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>A different view came from Sen. Bill Soules, D-Las Cruces, who voted against the bill. He said he opposes a government-sponsored campaign to increase sales of lottery tickets. \u201cThe lottery is an incredibly regressive way of funding scholarships,\u201d Soules said. \u201cAn inordinate percentage of the tickets are bought by low-income people to pay for college scholarships of wealthier people.\u201d<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>Smith\u2019s bill now goes to the House of Representatives.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p><em>Contact Milan Simonich at (505) 986-3080 or <a href=\"mailto:msimonich@sfnewmexican.com\" target=\"_blank\">msimonich@sfnewmexican.com<\/a>. Follow his Ringside Seat column at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/santafenewmexican.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">santafenewmexican.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>State senators approved a bill Thursday that would require the ailing New Mexico Lottery to provide $41 million a year for college scholarships, a move some opponents believe could leave less money for students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":126372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3250,125,133,107],"class_list":["post-126361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-legislative-session","tag-education","tag-nmsu","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}