Casino gambling's effect on education in Arizona

[OTABILL]

An interesting article on the financial impact of Native American Casinos on education in Arizona.

Casino gambling's effect on Arizona education: $45 a year per kid

[FloridaPhil]

The positive tax effects of casino gambling have been overblown for years.  In Florida, they put in the lottery by selling the public that it was going to increase funding for education.  After gambling went in, the State legislature decreased the school budget wiping out the gain.  Today Florida sells more than 3 billion dollars a year in lotto and scratch off tickets.  This does not count the billions in revenue taken in by the native tribe casinos which the State also shares in.  With all this revenue you would think Florida has the best schools in the nation.  Sadly this is not the case. 

[edog743]

Sadly Phil the tribe has absolutely zero control where the states share of tribal gaming goes.

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=edog743]Sadly Phil the tribe has absolutely zero control where the states share of tribal gaming goes.[/quote]Absolutely true.  I do not begrudge the tribes for bringing casino gambling to Florida.  In fact, I am grateful and believe they are doing a great job compared to many other states.  The problem comes when gambling is sold to the public as a way to get other people to pay your taxes or in the case of Florida have great schools with no cost.  

[DaBurglar]

Ive been writing and saying this now for some time.....neither political party currently in power (democrat or Republican) deals in reality, and have not done so since the 1970s, the last decade in which bi-partisanship was even attempted on a meaningful level or scale.Democrats typically will tax and spend, tax and spend, tax and spend on just about any societal issue or problem without any regard for long term sustainability or impact on either the issues themselves or society's ability to maintain the tax levels and increases.Republicans CLAIM to be all about "small government", with local communities and individuals being responsible for solving most problems, and less taxation in general....but in reality they simply want to spend lots of money on VERY VERY different things than Democrats, like law enforcement of all kinds, massive surveillance spending, walls, prisons, defense, etc.   Whats worse, these things are a total drain on society, and Republicans never want to raise the revenue needed for the things they want ("voo doo economics")Casinos were a seemingly easy solution to both dilemmas, and to both parties bankrupt governing models.   The reality is they are a HUGE societal drain.  Casinos are very much like Booze or painkillers, or any other substance which temporarily gives a masking relief from your troubles, but over time the effect loses grip and either you take more (i.e. build more casinos) or it becomes useless.    The money people initially spend on casinos, which a PORTION is siphoned off for taxes, is money they do NOT spend on all the other things which ALSO generate taxable revenue sources for society (i.e.  money blown in casinos, which tends to always be more than what people initially planned on blowing, is now no longer able to be spent on anything else.)   Thus over time, total tax revenue remains flat or even goes down.Whats more, so called vice taxes, along with consumption taxes, are dependent on people actually spending on the things attached to the taxes.....if people in general STOP spending on these things (i.e.  cut down on gambling, stop smoking, stop drinking, stop whatever), while these things are healthy for the individual, they are not good for society that has come to DEPEND on the tax revenue.   Its a very tenuous situation, which is why tax money should only be allocated based on A PORTION of LAST YEAR's revenue, not rosy projections of NEXT YEAR's economy (which both parties do, the latest being Trump's absurd budget....Obama's were almost as bad, as were Bush's before him......as hard as it is for SOME people to admit, the last President to even come close to projecting things correctly was Clinton, which is why the last three years he was in power the US Govt ran significant surpluses!)

[FloridaPhil]

Everyone is good with taxes as long as someone else pays them.  The Democrats want free health care, free college education, free child care, they don't want anyone to go hungry and they want successful people to pay for it all.   Republicans want big tax cuts, less spending on social programs and a big defense budget so America can police the world.   In addition, we live in a country where over half the people in it don't pay any income tax at all or they want to put the bill on a credit card that never gets paid.  To get elected, politicians promise their constituents to increase spending on things they care about and reduce taxes at the same time.  This is unsustainable.   On top of that we have the Tea Party that's main objective is to bring the government to it's knees until they get what they want while labeling moderates as "Republicans in Name Only" or Socialists.  There is plenty of blame to go around.  It's the Democrats own fault for running Hillary in the last election. 
She was the worst possible candidate and now they have to live with the consequences.I like the current President's focus on increasing American jobs and business.  At the same time I think he needs to keep his mouth shut, quit acting like a child and leave hard working immigrants alone.  I do agree immigrants that commit violent crimes should be deported.  America was built by immigrants, but they aren't all nice people when they hit our shores.  Trump could indeed make America great, but he needs to work on himself first.

[olds442jetaway]

Take a look at CT's disastrous financial condition and one of the richest states in the nation. Plenty of casino revenue coming in that just gets squandered, misspent, or worse. I have to blame the public as much as the politicians. Most are so wrapped up in their daily lives and who is diddling who in Hollywood to even watch the evening news. And that unfortunately covers way more of the people than the more than half that pay no Federal Income Tax. My wild guess is it covers about 90% of the public. edited to add.....in addition to the big withholding I had last year for State income taxes, I wrote a check in April to them for over 8k more. That was due to being taxed on my gross gambling winnings on the W-2gs with no ability to write that off. I'm sure that money is long gone before the ink dried on my signature on the check.

[FloridaPhil]

I am always amazed when I hear about the financial condition of our NE states.    They have some of the highest tax rates in the country, they tax anything and everything and still can't balance the budget.  What on Earth do they do with all that money? 

[olds442jetaway]

There are just so many crooks in politics. I can't even count how many of our Ct. town and city mayors have gone to prison and those are the ones who got caught. Many many local officials as well. We even had a recent two time loser Governor go back to prison. When the mayor of Bridgeport got out of prison, he actually got reelected. Like I posted before...unfortunately the ignorant or could care less public deserves whet they get and unfortunately the ten percent of us that do care have to suffer for it. I'm sure only a very small percentage ot the political crooks actually get caught. They insulate themselves very well often times exchanging things other than cash. I think a big part of the waste, fraud, and abuse is right in the various state contracts. They overpay for everything, there is rampant nepotism and on and on.

[paco13]

They only get caught when it is politically advantageous to some other crooks for them to get caught. Or when they are a possible threat to others getting caught. Destroy there credibility and no one will believe them.