CODEY ISSUES STATEMENT ON GOVERNOR’S LOTTERY PROPOSAL

Calls Proposal to Contribute Lottery Revenues to Pension Funds “Irresponsible”

TRENTON – Senator Richard J. Codey issued the following statement in response to the Governor’s proposal to contribute revenues from the State Lottery to eligible pension plans. The governor presented the proposal in his Fiscal Year 2018 State Budget Address.

“Shifting the lottery money to the pension fund is a Penn & Teller illusion trick.

“You can shift the money from one pot to the other, but you still have to provide the necessary resources for both. Absent a new revenue stream, it’s too much of gamble and it’s the pockets of New Jersey taxpayers that will suffer.

“To come out with such a proposal without explaining how the State will cover the aid lost from vital education programs and institutions that serve developmentally disabled residents, veterans, and senior citizens is completely irresponsible.”

According to the New Jersey Lottery site, in Fiscal Year 2016, $987 million, or 30% of net lottery sales, were used for vital funding to education and institutions. A complete list of programs supported by State Lottery resources for FY2015, which included school nutrition programs, tuition aid grants, the Marie Katzenbach School for the Deaf, and the operation of centers for developmentally disabled, state psychiatric hospitals, as well as homes for disabled soldiers, is available online.