Atheist Group Threatens to Sue Over National Motto on Police Vehicles

Religious Freedom, , ,

“In God We Trust” has been the official motto of the United States of America for almost 60 years. It has appeared on many coins minted by the U.S. government since 1864.

However, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Wisconsin, has threatened to sue law enforcement agencies in Arkansas if they do not remove the phrase “In God We Trust” from their police cruisers.

The Associated Press writes,

The organization sent letters to the Cave City Police Department and the Hempstead County sheriff’s office after both placed the saying on their patrol vehicles. The foundation’s co-president says she intends to sue if the phrase isn’t removed, but didn’t give further details.

The Cave City mayor says he has seen the letter but has yet to make a decision on whether to strip the message from the city’s police cars. The Hempstead County sheriff he says he won’t remove the logo despite the foundation’s letter.

“In God We Trust” was adopted as the official motto of the United States in 1956, but its history dates all the way back to the American Civil War. Then Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase urged the U.S. mint in Philadelphia to begin minting coins with a motto honoring God, saying, (more…)

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One Simple Way the Arkansas Lottery Can Pay More in Scholarships

1 CommentArkansas Lottery

We keep saying it over and over again: There is one simple way the Arkansas Lottery can pay out more in scholarship money. All Lottery officials have to do is increase the percentage of lottery revenue budgeted for scholarships.

As we wrote earlier this week, the Arkansas Lottery only paid 18% of its revenue last month toward college scholarships.

And for Fiscal Year 2015–which ended last June–the Arkansas Lottery paid a paltry 17.7% of its gross revenue toward scholarships.

To put these numbers in perspective, the State of Louisiana has a law on the books requiring its lottery to pay 35% of its gross revenue toward education. That’s why Louisiana’s lottery is able to make less money in lottery ticket sales than the Arkansas Lottery, but still pay out more in education funding.

Lottery officials continue to insist that if they set aside a larger percentage of gross revenue for scholarship funding, then the Lottery will have less money for prizes, marketing, and so forth; this, they say, would cause lottery ticket sales to go down, and fewer ticket sales would mean less money for scholarships.

The argument, essentially, is that by keeping the percentage of gross revenue allocated for scholarships lower than most states, Arkansas is somehow able to sell more lottery tickets and make more money for education as a result.

To show how flawed this argument is, here is a breakdown of the numbers: (more…)

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Lottery Gives 18 Cents on the Dollar to Education in July

Arkansas Lottery

Last week the Arkansas Lottery published its first financial report for Fiscal Year 2016.

The numbers reveal the Arkansas Lottery gave 18 cents of every dollar to college scholarships during the month of July. This is roughly on par with previous months from the past year; it is less than what the Arkansas Lottery allocated when it first started six years ago–roughly 21 – 22 cents of every dollar–and well below the 30 – 35 cents of every dollar the typical state lottery allocates.

All told, the Arkansas Lottery took in $31.7 million in scholarships during the month of July, and it paid $5.8 million to the state’s scholarship fund.

While it is too early to start making serious predictions, at this rate the Arkansas Lottery is set to pay out approximately $70 – $75 million in scholarships by the end of Fiscal Year 2016 next June.

Below are the specific numbers the Arkansas Lottery published for the month of July:

Month (FY16) Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July, 2015 $31,665,651.14 $5,784,683.09 18.3%

For context, here are the numbers for Fiscal Year 2015, which just ended last June.

Month (FY15) Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July, 2014  $30,925,067.43  $5,928,447.99 19%
August 31,571,412.10 5,296,965.80 17%
September 30,710,493.31 4,317,227.10 14%
October 32,959,739.29 5,939,625.59 18%
November 30,617,278.28 5,577,035.16 18%
December 34,507,731.54 5,474,318.77 16%
January, 2015 35,433,619.67 7,287,773.28 21%
February 41,770,314.46 6,161,343.01 15%
March 37,367,453.25 6,898,524.35 18%
April 33,866,970.54 5,881,005.95 17%
May 35,689,036.10 5,409,050.48 15%
June 33,815,559.59 8,278,928.14 24%
Total  $409,234,675.56  $72,450,245.62 17.7%

Lottery proponents continue to argue if the Arkansas Legislature requires the Lottery to set aside a minimum percentage of its gross revenue for scholarships–such as, for example, 30%–then the Lottery will have to cut prizes and advertising; that’s going to translate into fewer people buying lottery tickets, and that will mean less lottery revenue all around–and ultimately less money for scholarships.

We have demonstrated quite clearly that this argument simply does not hold up. If the Arkansas Lottery budgeted at least 30% of its gross revenue for college scholarships, it would pay out more money than it does for scholarships right now–even if lottery ticket sales plummeted by $100 million, from $410 million to $310 million.

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