Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 29, 1995                   TAG: 9505030010
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KEN WOODLEY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

LET LOCALITIES PUT LOTTERY FUNDS TO WORK FOR CHILDREN

Returning lottery money to establish trust funds for education and economic development - without cutting needed programs or forcing localities to make up the difference - doesn't require an Einstein. It's terribly simple.

Here's one idea:

Specify that the money must be used for education or capital projects related to economic development. I include economic development because it's shortsighted to expend tax dollars to train our young people to leave Virginia and go to work in some other state. A meaningful diploma from a Virginia school and a meaningful job in a Virginia community are equal parts of the future we can, and must, create.

We should further specify that lottery money cannot take the place of local money annually allocated for operating school systems. Lottery money is icing, so there must be a cake. Localities cannot cut their commitment to education. If they cheat, they lose a meaningful percentage of their lottery funding the next year. I view returned lottery money as educational and economic-development trust funds for every single locality in Virginia. It's seed money that really will put a good education on every child's plate, and help attract jobs to put that education to use in productive and satisfying ways.

Such a program would push Virginia and Virginians to the forefront nationally and internationally. We would be able to afford enough new classrooms and teachers to create a student-teacher ratio of unparalleled opportunity to instruct our children, regardless of their skill level when they enter kindergarten.

And because the lottery funding could be used to enhance teacher salaries, Virginia would attract the very best teachers from across the country and beyond our own borders. If we put excellent teachers in productive classroom environments, then all of our children will learn.

And how do we pay for this without cutting important existing programs? Like this:

To give localities a bigger slice of pie, we must increase the size of the pie. Raise the state sales tax just one-half of 1 percent, from 4.5 to 5 percent. Doing this will cover the loss of state revenue created by returning lottery profits to localities.

It might be simpler, of course, to raise the sales tax that one-half of 1 percent and return that increased revenue to localities. But I believe that:

Seeing a very visible and positive return to localities from the lottery will be good for those buying lottery tickets, and those who oppose the state's game of chance.

Virginians were promised lottery money would be returned, and this allows that promise to be kept without cutting important programs or forcing localities to pick up the financial slack. It assures a net gain at the local level.

Public support for the half-percent increase will come more easily by returning the lottery money as part of the package.

Unlike the one-half of 1 percent, which won't be noticed or remembered, the lottery will provide a visible reminder of our commitment to education and economic development in the state. We'll see it and so will prospective business and industry.

The sales tax is one of the fairer taxes we have because it applies to us all. Everyone would contribute his or her half-a-penny's worth when they spend a dollar. Children buying comic books and baseball cards would make a meaningful contribution toward freeing up the lottery money for their education and employment, joining their parents and grandparents. That half a penny would barely be felt, in all honesty, and many nonresidents would help us fund these trust funds as they spend money in our communities.

This isn't meaningless taxing-and-spending or simply raising money to have it swallowed by a bureaucracy that couldn't account for the increased sales-tax revenues. Teachers and classrooms have been proved to work. Shell buildings create jobs. This isn't pie in the sky. Creating trust funds in every Virginia locality for education and economic development could be a watershed moment in our state's history. As we empower our young people with knowledge and solid jobs, we'll spend less on crime, prisons and the cost of other social ills. We would buy more desks in more classrooms and fewer metal bed racks in maximum-security prisons.

I believe most Virginians would support such a plan. The state already takes 5 percent, 5 cents, when we spend a dollar. We don't get half a penny back. The state keeps that change. Let's get our money's worth.

More than 100 Virginia legislators have sponsored or co-sponsored lottery bills, and we also have, for the first time, a governor who wants to give the money back. Let's not let partisan politics get in the way of Virginia's future. Get bipartisan or get bye-bye. The New Dominion awaits.

Ken Woodley is editor of The Farmville Herald.