AR Lottery Scholarships Continue to Languish: April Report

Arkansas Lottery

Yesterday the Arkansas Lottery released its financial report for the month of April.

The reports show the Arkansas Lottery took in more than $42 million, but paid out less than $7.2 million in scholarship funding. That’s about 17% of the Lottery’s total revenue for the month.

Since last July the Arkansas Lottery has grossed nearly $422.4 million, but only 16 – 17 cents of every dollar it made has been budgeted for students. The rest is being spent on salaries, prizes, contract fees, advertising, and other expenses.

Right now it appears the Arkansas Lottery is on track to pay $85 – $90 million for scholarships this year. That’s $10 – $15 million shy of the amount lottery proponents told us students would receive every year back in 2008.

Below is a breakdown of lottery revenue and scholarship spending so far this fiscal year.

Month Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July $36,885,396.81 $6,661,762.99 18.1%
August 49,320,459.23 8,912,741.54 18.1%
September 36,405,731.14 6,755,333.93 18.6%
October 39,802,740.53 5,667,305.74 14.2%
November 36,186,107.78 6,691,228.00 18.5%
December 44,716,219.32 6,583,355.77 14.7%
January, 2018 44,063,056.11 8,230,861.00 18.7%
February 39,389,927.57 5,947,647.50 15.1%
March 53,523,320.61 7,945,570.02 14.8%
April 42,064,194.78 7,192,997.10 17.1%
Total $422,357,153.88 $70,588,803.59 16.7%

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A.G. Rejects Two Recreational Marijuana Proposals

Marijuana

Last Friday Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office rejected two proposals to legalize recreational marijuana in Arkansas.

The first proposal would let anyone 21 or older grow and use marijuana for medical or recreational purposes.

The A.G.’s offices noted a number of typos and errors in the measure, and ultimately rejected the proposal, saying the ballot title was “wholly inadequate” for a constitutional amendment.

The second proposal would let anyone 18 or older grow, sell, and use marijuana for any reason.

The A.G. rejected that measure as well, saying it was virtually identical to past marijuana proposals her office had rejected.

Attorney General Rutledge rejected at least 17 similar measures last year, and has rejected six recreational marijuana proposals so far this year.

As we have said before, marijuana’s proponents aren’t content with “medical marijuana.” The endgame is — and always has been — full legalization.

You can read the A.G.’s opinion about the first amendment here.

You can read the A.G.’s opinion about the second amendment here.

Photo By Cannabis Training University (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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