{"id":128536,"date":"2016-02-17T16:11:54","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T23:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=128536"},"modified":"2016-02-17T18:40:35","modified_gmt":"2016-02-18T01:40:35","slug":"house-panel-kills-bill-to-help-shore-up-lottery-scholarship-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/02\/house-panel-kills-bill-to-help-shore-up-lottery-scholarship-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"House panel kills bill to help shore up lottery scholarship fund"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_56542\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-56542\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-771x504.jpg\" alt=\"A statue outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.\" width=\"771\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-771x504.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-336x220.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-768x502.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-1170x764.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Their action effectively leaves the struggling scholarship program without any means to shore it up until next year&#8217;s legislative session.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The House Ways and Means Committee has killed a bill that would have required the New Mexico Lottery to provide $41 million a year to a stagnant fund for college scholarships.<\/p>\n<p>The committee voted 8-5 against <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/legislation.aspx?Chamber=S&amp;LegType=B&amp;LegNo=180&amp;year=16\" target=\"_blank\">Senate Bill 180<\/a> <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1641881820\"><span class=\"aQJ\">on Wednesday<\/span><\/span>, with two Democratic lawmakers joining Republicans in voting against the bill and one Republican crossing party lines to vote for it.<\/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>Their action effectively leaves the struggling scholarship program without any means to shore it up until next year&#8217;s legislative session.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s one of the bills where the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, and I guess we&#8217;re going to have to taste it &#8212; a bitter taste &#8212; once it starts to decline in what the lottery contributes to the scholarship fund,&#8221; said Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming.<\/p>\n<p>Smith introduced the bill, which would have removed requirement that the New Mexico Lottery give 30 percent of its gross revenue to the scholarship fund, though Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, introduced an amendment guaranteeing that a minimum of $41 million a year would go to college scholarships.<\/p>\n<p>The bill, which cleared the Senate last week <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/02\/bill-to-alter-lottery-scholarship-funding-advances\/\" target=\"_blank\">by a vote of 29-12<\/a>, would have altered the framework of the fund. Under current law, each month the lottery must pay at least 30 percent of the gross revenue from the previous month&#8217;s ticket sales to the state&#8217;s Legislative Lottery Scholarship program. Smith&#8217;s bill would have allowed the lottery to spend more money on advertising and promotion, with an eye toward offering bigger prizes and attracting more players &#8212; and, in turn, collecting more money for scholarships.<\/p>\n<p>Some critics, including several members of the House Ways and Means Committee, said they were concerned that language in the bill regarding &#8220;lottery gaming systems&#8221; would lead to the scholarship fund collecting proceeds from video bingo, video poker and other types of gaming, and lead to more gambling in the state.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1641881821\"><span class=\"aQJ\">On Thursday<\/span><\/span>, Smith said he didn&#8217;t buy that argument: &#8220;That door has already been open.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fred Nathan, executive director of the Santa Fe-based Think New Mexico, opposed the bill, saying it ultimately would provide less scholarship money for students. &#8220;Senate Bill 180 was lose-lose for New Mexico: it would have had the effect of expanding gambling while reducing the dollars going to scholarships,&#8221; he said in an email <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1641881822\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past eight years or so, lottery ticket sales have stalled while need for the lottery scholarship fund has grown.<\/p>\n<p>While the scholarship once covered 100 percent of tuition, that amount dropped to 95 percent in the 2014-15 school year and to 90 percent in the current school year. It would have dropped even lower if lawmakers hadn&#8217;t drawn on the state&#8217;s general fund and alcohol excise tax revenue to supplement the lottery fund. That liquor excise tax contribution will end in 2017, adding more stress to the scholarship fund.<\/p>\n<p>But some hope for the fund came in a <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1641881823\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday<\/span><\/span> Senate floor vote, 35-4, to support a bill that would funnel between $1 million and $3 million annually in unclaimed lottery prize money into the scholarship fund. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov:8080\/Legislation\/Legislation?chamber=S&amp;legType=B&amp;legNo=79&amp;year=16\" target=\"_blank\">That bill<\/a>, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, still has to make it through the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n<p><em>Contact Robert Nott at (505) 986-3021 or <a href=\"mailto:rnott@sfnewmexcian.com\">rnott@sfnewmexcian.com<\/a>. A prior version of this article incorrectly stated that Sanchez&#8217;s bill would funnel $6 million to $9 million into the scholarship fund.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Their action effectively leaves the struggling scholarship program without any means to shore it up until next year&#8217;s legislative session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3250,125,133,107],"class_list":["post-128536","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\/128536","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=128536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}