State Lottery Workers Call Privatization Plan a Gimmick
One group in particular isn't taking kindly to the Governor's recently announced plan to privatize the state lottery: those who currently work there. From Sacramento, Marianne Russ reports.
A gimmick. That's what Jim Hard with Service Employees International 1000 calls the Governor's lottery plan. He says the Governor should first try to make structural changes in the lottery to increase revenue.
Hard : Any private equity firm, anybody that wants to make the revenue of the lottery rise is going to have to make the same kind of changes that could be made under state management.
Hard says the union will fight the move, and talks with administration officials are planned. But Governor Schwarzenegger was fairly clear about his view when he unveiled his revised budget recently.
Schwarzenegger : We can double or triple the revenues from the lottery if we maintain ownership but lease it to the private sector to manage the sales.
Schwarzenegger would use money from the deal to pay off debt early.
