Bill approved by state Senate committee would privatize lottery

Enticed by the notion of landing more cash to develop life sciences, IU officials supported Tuesday’s Senate committee approval of the controversial Hoosier lottery privatization bill.\nThe bill, which squeaked through the Indiana Senate Tax and Fiscal committee with a 7-5 vote of approval, calls for a corporate takeover of the state-run lottery, which is another public sector Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels has called to be privately contracted over the past year.\nThe bill will now move to the full Senate for debate.\nUnder the bill’s provision, the state would receive at least $1 billion from the lottery’s new management in return for the 30-year control of the lottery.\nForty percent of the state’s new capital would be deposited into the World Class Scholars Fund, according to the bill’s text, while the deal’s other $600 million would be used to create the Hoosier Hope Scholarships.\n“It’s a very bold and controversial proposal,” said J.T. Forbes, IU executive director for state relations. \nForbes said the University was supportive of any plan that aims to benefit the state’s life sciences programs. IU continues to consider alternative initiatives that would also support the intensified University research, he said.\n“The challenge we face in Indiana is we need revenue quickly to catalyze our research universities,” Forbes said.\nForbes said the additional capital could benefit both existing faculty research groups along with the recruitment of new “world-class” faculty.\nMoney for the scholars fund would be allocated by a special board supervised by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. The board’s decisions will also have to be supported by the peer reviews of other institutions.\nThough Forbes said IU would potentially be only one of many universities competing for the additional cash, IU would still have a chance at landing greater funding because the University would team with other institutions on future research projects.\nThis possibility of further University research capital comes in addition to a proposed $40 million state-budget increase for IU life sciences. That spending is awaiting discussion and action in the Indiana House of Representatives after it was approved by a committee Monday.\nAll four Democratic members of the Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee voted against proposals to outsource the lottery, even though the party has made a priority of increasing funding for Indiana higher education during the most recent legislative session.\nIndiana Sen. David Ford, D-Hartford City, voted against the bill Tuesday. He said that although he sees education as one of Indiana’s “greatest assets,” he thought the bill targeted families who “can least afford to pay” it.\n“The net effect is that families that should be saving for their children’s education will end up spending those dollars on the lottery,” Ford said in the e-mail.\nBeyond provisions for additional research funding, the bill also calls for a new merit-based scholarship program, which could provide as many as 1,700 new scholarships for students studying throughout Indiana. These scholarships – valued at $5,000 per year for students at four-year institutions and $2,500 annually for students enrolled in two-year degree programs – would stipulate that upon graduation, recipients would be required to maintain employment in Indiana for three years.\nForbes said he believed it was still too early to predict if the bill will ultimately receive a majority support. However, the proposal will almost certainly experience significant criticism from many Democrats who have disapproved of Daniels’ outsourcing plans all along.