Oregon gets 'substantially more' revenue from the lottery than from corporate income tax

[Bluebear]

So sad. This from David Cay Johnston at Tax.com:

The long-running drive in America to push the burden of taxes down the income ladder has reached a new milestone in Oregon, which sends a troubling message for where our country's public finances are headed.

Oregon now gets substantially more revenue from state-sponsored gambling than from its corporate income tax.

The Oregon Office of Economic Analysis, the state agency that forecasts revenue and expenses, said that for the 2011-2013 biennium, the lottery should net the state almost $1.1 billion compared with just under $900 million from the corporate income tax. ... In other words, in Oregon those least able to afford it, those who benefit least from America's economy, are being cajoled into bearing a heavier share of the burdens of government. At the same time, politicians are lavishing ever more tax breaks on corporations, those storehouses of wealth whose managers want to enjoy the benefits of public transportation, public education, public courts, and everything else the taxpayers provide, without sharing in the burdens.

http://www.americablog.com/2011/04/oregon-gets-substantially-more-revenue.html

[Sherman A1]

1. Interesting

and it's a shame and I fully understand the point, yet no one forces anyone to buy a lottery ticket.

[Bluebear]

2. Point being, there is no equity.

States are relying on lottery sales to people who are dreaming of a better life, rather than expecting coporations (Hello, GE?) to chuck in their fair share too!

[Hannah Bell]

4. Beside the point.

Though it's interesting that lotteries moved from the purview of churches & organized crime to being a mainstay of state finances.

[Hannah Bell]

3. And who, proportionally, buys the most lottery tickets? The poor.

Oregon's gross state product: $132.66 billion (2006)

Silicon Forest is a nickname for the cluster of high-tech companies located in the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. states of Oregon and Southwest Washington, and most frequently refers to the industrial corridor between Beaverton and Hillsboro in northwest Oregon.

CurrentAmbric (acquired by Nethra Imaging in April 2009)
ARRIS (via acquisition of C-COR)
Cascade Microtech
ClearEdge Power<6>
Consumer Cellular<7>
Digimarc<7>
Electro Scientific Industries
Elemental
EthicsPoint<8>
Extensis
EPSON<9>
FEI Company
FLIR Systems
GemStone Systems
Genentech<10>
Hewlett-Packard
IBM (by acquisition of Sequent)
InFocus<11>
Intel<12>
Integra Telecom<7>
IP Fabrics
Jive Software
LaCie
Laika<13>
Lattice Semiconductor
Maxim Integrated Products
Mentor Graphics<11>
Merix Corporation
Novellus Systems
ON Semiconductor<14>
Oracle Corporation (by acquisition of Sun Microsystems)
Panic Software
Phoseon Technology<15>
Planar Systems
Puppet Labs<16>
RadiSys Corporation
Sage Software (by the acquisition of Timberline)
Siltronic
SolarWorld
Synopsys
Tektronix
Tripwire
TriQuint Semiconductor
VeriWave <17>
Vernier Software & Technology<7>
WaferTech (TSMC subsidiary)
Webtrends
Xerox<18>
XPLANE<19>
XpressBet
Yahoo!<20>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Forest

[jberryhill]

7. State lotteries are a regressive tax on those who don't know math

I've always considered it to be a conflict of interest for the state to be charged with (a) mathematics education and (b) selling lottery tickets.

[xchrom]

5. Recommend

[crickets]

6. Ouch. K&R

Kicking for the noon crowd.