“It is a new approach to help solve
Bishop's sponsor statement said the bill would establish a framework similar to the
Under the bill's raffle program, Alaskans 18 and older could pledge their dividends in
The state would divide the donations into three pools of funds.
Half of the money would go directly to the state's annual education budget. A fourth would go into an education endowment, and if it grew to
Under the bill, the state would hold a public drawing each year to select four winners, awarding the first name selected with a cash prize of 10 percent of the raffle fund. The fourth name would get 2 percent.
“Alaskans have a long history of involvement with games of chance and gambling,” Bishop wrote in the sponsor statement.
“Under current law, there are many games of chance exempted from
The bill would add the PFD raffle as one of the activities not included in
It's unclear just how much money a raffle like this would generate for
The
Bishop could not be reached for comment about his bill Monday.
Fellman said Monday afternoon that the idea for the PFD raffle stemmed from a similar piece of legislation proposed in the 1980s that would have created a voluntary lottery, but which never became law.
“It's only a small part of the fiscal solution that the state needs to consider. So we are continuing to emphasize, especially with our members, that we need a comprehensive fiscal plan that involves broad-based revenue sources,” Parker said.
Bishop's office created examples of how the raffle would work based on the numbers of Alaskans betting
Nearly
The first-place raffle winner would be paid
But this year, Alaskans pledged only
Other states have used revenue from lottery ticket sales to fund public education. However, The
Bishop wrote in his sponsor statement that his bill “set up an education lottery as a fun way to raise money for a good cause: supporting
It would cost an estimated
The sole dissenter when Bishop's bill passed the
Bishop's bill was referred to the
If it becomes law, the raffle could start in 2018.
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