Assemblywoman Galef's Bill Maximizes the Percentage of Lottery Sales Allocated to Fund Education

Assemblywoman Sandy Galef introduced a bill (A.6331) to increase the percentage of lottery revenue that is allocated for education. In fiscal year 2003, the aid given to education by the New York State Lottery is 33% of all revenue, while prize money is at a high of 57%. 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% of overall school funding.

Galef said, "If at least 45% of the $5.84 billion in total lottery sales in 2003-2004 were allocated to education, there would have been approximately $738 million in additional aid to New York schools. An even smaller proportion of prize money is allocated to education every year. 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."

Although the dollar amount has risen to $1.89 billion dollars to education funding from $1.78 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 5% overall decrease in lottery funding to New York State education since 2000. The Assemblywoman says, "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."


Year Ending March 31 Billions of Lottery Sales Dollars Allocated to Education Percent of Total Sales
2000 1.365 38%
2001 1.446 35%
2002 1.579 33%
2003 1.78 33%
2004 1.89 Approximately 33%

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