The House Taxation committee doesn’t think the state needs to reduce its reliance on video lottery revenue. House Bill 1227 creates an education enhancement trust fund, where a portion of the state’s income from video lottery will be deposited. Supporters say the sub-fund will create an investment income to replace revenue from video lottery.
Currently, the state’s video lottery revenue is deposited into the property tax reduction fund. Each year general fund revenues grow 4.5 percent, the bill moves a higher percentage of the income from the property tax fund to the education enhancement trust. But opponents, like Wade Pogany with the Associated School Boards of South Dakota, are concerned about recovering the losses.
“The reality is, is that if you take $9.5 million out the first year, $18-19 (million) the second year on down, that just means there’s less revenue source for you to look at. Today, we are debating revenue sources in education on the current budget. So when you begin to take those revenue sources away and don’t replace them with something else, then those revenues do not go into property tax reduction. You have less revenue, then, to look at when you’re putting the budget together,” Pogany says.
Other opponents say video lottery revenues are recovering, and the state is trying to grow them by implementing new games. But supporters argue young people aren’t playing and the state should plan ahead for when video lottery isn’t making money. The committee killed the bill 9 to 4.