I AM THE FORCE

To quote Marvin Pratt, "It's Time." It's time for a constitutional amendment to eliminate the state lottery and, with it, all legalized gambling in Wisconsin. The state should never have taken the gambling bait in the first-place. As you old-timers recall, the lottery was sold by a bipartisan bunch of ethically challenged legislators like Dick Shoemaker as the solution to property tax relief. A vote against the lottery was cast as a vote against the property taxpayer. What a big lie that has turned out to be.

The state received an estimated $132.1 million in property tax relief from the Lottery fund last year. With just over $5 million residents, that breaks down to about $25 in tax relief for every man, woman and child. Woop tee doo! Is the $25 really worth all the hassle? Throw in the Indian money, and we have the blessing of an even larger state government.

I'm rather libertarian, and really couldn't care less if Wisconsin's lower classes want to throw away their cigarette money on the bad bet of a lottery ticket. But I'm also conservative, so I know that government should not be in the gambling business.

I understand that the Wisconsin political world has accepted the lottery as forevermore, and that a reversal is probably unlikely. But let's stop the charade and recognize Wisconsin's gambling policy for what it really is -- a boon to big developers, Indian tribes, and state bureaucrats. The rest of us are stuck with our government running a gambling house, the Indian tribes buying the Governor's Mansion, dying supper clubs, increased embezzlement, old ladies spending our inheritance, and the everyday diminution of our cumulative intelligence in gas station lines around the state.

Republicans should take advantage of their soon total domination of state politics and get conservative about gambling. Let's roll back the clock, and leave the gambling business to other states. Or is the true definition of a good politician all about staying bought?