Since its inception in 1992, the Georgia Lottery has existed solely to support HOPE and Pre-K and has provided nearly $20 billion to students of Georgia.
Will that change? State Representative Sandra Scott (D-Rex) recently introduced House Bill 14 and House Resolution 7, legislation which would direct the Georgia Lottery Corporation to offer one or more lottery games to benefit homeless military veterans. However, Rep. Scott stresses that this legislation “would not take funds away from the existing HOPE scholarship to help students attend college, but creating a new lottery ticket would generate enough money to support education and possibly end veterans’ homelessness.”
“Creating a lottery scratch off ticket to help end Georgia’s Homeless Veterans population would be a win-win,” said Rep. Scott. “As a former staff sergeant in the US Army and a veteran who is involved in different organizations, it is crucial that we do the right thing for our homeless veterans. This legislation would not draw money from different organizations, rather, it would create a lottery ticket in which proceeds would be raised to help end veteran homelessness.”
According to Rep. Scott, HB 14 would allow the Georgia Lottery Corporation to offer one or more lottery games to assist homeless military veterans in Georgia, and the proceeds would be deposited into the state’s general fund. The bill provides that the Governor would make specific budget recommendations on how these funds should be appropriated in order to eliminate homelessness, prevent near-term homelessness and provide safe and secure living conditions for homeless military veterans.
HR 7 proposes a constitutional amendment that would authorize the Georgia General Assembly to appropriate proceeds of these lottery games operated by the state lottery to benefit homeless military veterans.
“Georgia has thousands of veterans, and they should not be forced to sleep in cars on the streets when we are capable of creating something that could ultimately end veteran homelessness,” added Rep. Scott. “We should let the people decide whether they would support a lottery ticket that would help put an end to veteran homelessness in Georgia.”
This legislation is the first to come out of a Senate Study Committee led by Chairman Sen. Ed Harbison (D–Columbus). The recommendation was:
* Legislation should be introduced that establishes one or more instant scratch off ticket games whose funds will be dedicated to help veterans services throughout the state. The game will be established and overseen by the Georgia Lottery Corporation.
At the time of his appointment as committee chair. Harbison said, “The idea of a lottery that will benefit veterans’ issues is not a new idea, but one that has been discussed for several years,” said Sen. Harbison, at the time of his appointment as committee chair.
“The Georgia Lottery has long been used as a means for students to attend Pre-Kindergarten and college, but we see the lottery as something that could also be used to benefit the men and women who have sacrificed their time, talents and energy to protecting and serving our nation. We realized that we need to do as much research as possible to determine the best course of legislative action in order to find a solution that will not affect the current system, but add to the lottery’s capabilities.”
During a State of the Lottery presentation to members of the House Higher Education Committee last year, Brad Bohannon, Vice President of Government Relations for the Georgia Lottery reminded the committee members that the Georgia Lottery exists solely to support HOPE and Pre-K and to maximize revenues for those programs. The Georgia Lottery was the 36th formed across the United States and is now one of 45 across the country.
According to his report, the Georgia Lottery has experienced unprecedented sales and returns to education in its history- with net sales exceeding $67.5 billion. FY17 was a record year, and to date for FY18, the Georgia Lottery is on track for yet another record year. In fact, the Georgia Lottery has had six consecutive years, according to Bohannon.
With these recorded totals, Bohannon stated that on average the Georgia Lottery raised $3 million a day for HOPE and Pre-K.
