Lottery Funds Travel while Money for Schools Declines

While the share of lottery revenues given to education has declined, reaching the lowest level in a decade last fiscal year, the Missouri Lottery has spent over $129,000 on out-of-state travel since 2011.

The lottery has sent its employees to conferences and seminars in places like New York, Las Vegas, California, and Chicago. The travel included 20 trips to Florida in the past three years, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The company that manages Missouri’s scratch-offs and is bidding on a contract to produce other games has spent over $20,000 on Missouri Lottery employee travel in the past three years.

These revelations followed questions by the House Budget and Appropriations – Health, Mental Health, and Social Services committees at a hearing in July on why the share of lottery funds given to education decreased to 23% of sales last year. The Missouri Lottery brought in a record $1.16 billion last fiscal year, yet the amount for our state’s schools declined to $267 million, $21 million below the previous year.

At the July hearing, the Missouri Lottery’s executive director told the committees that she was proud of the agency’s administrative costs, which are 4.6% of revenues. Yet other state agencies that perform far more critical services for Missourians spend less of their budgets on administration. In fiscal year 2013, the Department of Mental Health spent 1.82% of its budget on administrative costs and the Department of Health and Senior Services spent .58%.

Governor Nixon has ordered a review of the lottery’s operations to determine what changes need to be made to protect lottery funds for Missouri schools, and the Budget committee plans to follow up on the findings later this year.