Gambling With Our Children

An issue I haven't dealt with in Lege reports is the possibility of extending the availability of gambling in Texas, and the use of tax revenue from gambling to help support public education. I don't want to go into a lot of history about how the state lottery was sold on that basis, but has failed to measure up. In principle, there may be something to say for the idea, as gambling remains wildly popular (ever try to get onto a Vegas flight?), and could provide a revenue stream that people wouldn't mind paying. Of course, if you look at the odds involved in slots and other forms of gambling under consideration, and ask who the big losers would be, the answer is (drumroll, please) poor folk. What a surprise. And no surprise at all that regressive Republicans would want to champion this issue. It's their kinda tax.

Into this situation comes a beacon of light from houtopia.com. Houtopia points out how the R's manipulated this issue to have their cake and eat it too, while bashing Democrats at no expense. The short of it is that they found it politically unappealing to be openly promoting gambling, but figured they could sucker the Dems into leading the charge by promising money for schools that the R's had just shortchanged in HB3. Then they could turn around and bash us for doing what they wanted. A number of separate bills have been introduced that I won't take time to sort through here. But suffice it to say that both the state party and Dem House leaders have said "No, thanks." Meanwhile, it seems they've tossed this hot potato back where it belongs, on Rick Perry's desk.

Maybe in a perfect world, there's a way to permit gambling for those who want it, and there sure as hell ought to be a way to properly fund our schools, but they don't need to be mixed. Meanwhile, that perfect world doesn't exist with regressive Republicans in charge in Austin, where their idea of gaming is sticking it to everybody else while smiling for the cameras and claiming to have done good. For now, here's a few "attaboys" for Charles Soechting and the gang at Dem HQ.

DEMOPHOENIX