Assemblywoman Galef's Bill Maximizes Education Funding by Increasing Lottery Sale Allocation

Assemblywoman Sandy Galef is reintroducing a bill to increase the percentage of lottery revenue that is allocated for education, known last year as A.6570. In fiscal year 2005 the aid given to education by the New York State Lottery was 32% of all revenue, while prize money was at 56%. The other 10% of all lottery revenue is given to contractors, retailers and is used for other administrative costs.

Assemblywoman Sandy Galef said, "The percent of total sales for education funding has been decreasing, while the prize money continues to grow. With New York State schools in such financial need, I see no reason why more money shouldn't be diverted to education." Currently the New York Lottery makes up only 5.1% of overall school funding. However, the New York Lottery reported that over 300 school districts in the state received 10% or more of their funding in the 2004-05 school year from the Lottery.

"If at least 45% of the $6.79 billion in total lottery sales in 2005-2006 were allocated to education, there would have been approximately $851 million in additional aid to New York schools. An even smaller proportion of prize money is allocated to education every year," said Galef. "We should halt and reverse this disturbing trend, especially in light of the challenges we face in assembling this year's education budget and responding to the Campaign for Fiscal Equity Lawsuit."

Due to the recent ruling by the state Court of Appeals, the Legislature is required to pay close to $2 billion more per year to the New York City school system, making the issue of education funding even more pertinent.

Although the dollar amount has risen to $2.203 billion dollars in education funding from $1.89 billion dollars last fiscal year, the percentage remains the same. Lottery revenues are increasing, but the percentage of funding for education is not. There has been a 6% overall decrease in lottery funding to New York State education since 2000. Galef declared, "If we could raise the percentage of education funding in accordance with the rise in lottery revenue, then we would have millions more to give to our schools."