Stop Predatory Gambling

Wall Street executives would be right at home among State Lottery officials

by spgadmin

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that a Georgia state senator has pre-filed a bill that would force lottery officials to get legislative approval before they hand out bonuses to staffers.

The bill from Senate Majority Whip Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg) would dissolve the current Georgia Lottery Corp. board and create a new one appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House of Representatives. Currently the governor alone appoints the board.

The measure would also force the lottery president to get the board’s and a legislative panel’s approval before giving out bonuses.

Seabaugh prefiled the bill for the upcoming 2010 legislative session after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the Georgia Lottery Corp. gave out $2.7 million in bonuses this year, up 8 percent from last year.

Lottery head Margaret DeFrancisco received a $204,034 bonus, up from $150,000 in 2008. That’s on top of a $286,000 salary, which was unchanged from 2008.

Lottery officials say the bonuses are commonly used in private industry to help retain top staffers.

However, the bonuses have upset lawmakers, who fear the lottery isn’t putting enough of the ticket-sale money toward HOPE scholarships and pre-kindergarten classes.

Georgia is the same state that furloughed 25,000 state workers at various agencies in early 2009 because of ongoing budget reduction requirements. The furloughs, which require workers to take days off without pay, applied to 27% of Georgia’s total workforce of nearly 90,000. Yet despite these severe budget issues, the same state paid out almost $3 million in bonuses to lottery officials.

Further evidence that the people that benefit most from the government program of predatory gambling are those who sell and promote the product.