Wisconsin lawmakers on Wednesday voted down a proposal in Gov. Jim Doyle's budget bill to privatize half of the work at the Wisconsin lottery.
The Legislature's Joint Finance Committee voted 10-6 to delete a provision that would have eliminated 55 of 109 positions at the lottery.
Doyle's plan called for the private sector to take over the lottery's sales and marketing, ticket warehousing and distribution, product development, special events, and Web site operations, while state employees would still be in charge of prize payouts, contract management and other oversight functions.
Doyle said the tasks he wanted to privatize were not core government functions and could be handled more efficiently by private companies, generating more property tax relief for Wisconsin residents. Lottery proceeds saved property taxpayers an average of $93 on their 2004 tax bills.
Lawmakers noted that the Department of Revenue, which oversees the lottery, had not asked for the changes and had not developed plans on how to implement them.
The vote came as the Joint Finance Committee continued its work on Doyle's budget before sending it to the full Legislature.
The state faces a $1.6 billion deficit for the two-year budget period through June 30, 2007. That shortfall must be made up through spending cuts, tax increases or both.
Its a good thing this got voted down. If it didn't, the govenor might have enterd into a no-bid contract for some outrageous amount to some big donor to his campaign to overtake lottery operations. Wouldn't be the first time this has happened. The state paid $700,000 to have a website designed for information about the reconstruction of the Marquette Interchange in Milwaukee. That too was a no-bid contract and only one bid was accepted. Todd would have done a great job of building that website (we all know Todd does a great job with this site) and my guess is he would have done it for far less than 700 grand!
Quote:Originally posted by whodeani on April 21, 2005
Its a good thing this got voted down. If it didn't, the govenor might have enterd into a no-bid contract for some outrageous amount to some big donor to his campaign to overtake lottery operations. Wouldn't be the first time this has happened. The state paid $700,000 to have a website designed for information about the reconstruction of the Marquette Interchange in Milwaukee. That too was a no-bid contract and only one bid was accepted. Todd would have done a great job of building that website (we all know Todd does a great job with this site) and my guess is he would have done it for far less than 700 grand!
A-HAH ! I can tell you are a Wisconsinite ! Aint it sad...aint it true !
If the drawings were up for bid, I'd definately make a bid. Use the money to buy BALL machines, set up a studio, and hire talent.
Its a good thing this got voted down. If it didn't, the govenor might have enterd into a no-bid contract for some outrageous amount to some big donor to his campaign to overtake lottery operations. Wouldn't be the first time this has happened. The state paid $700,000 to have a website designed for information about the reconstruction of the Marquette Interchange in Milwaukee. That too was a no-bid contract and only one bid was accepted. Todd would have done a great job of building that website (we all know Todd does a great job with this site) and my guess is he would have done it for far less than 700 grand!
glad it got voted down,we don't need another indiana disaster