Not good at job.
When Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner came into office he did what Republicans usually do: found ways to give big business
big time corporate tax breaks, while trying to whittle away social programs and services to little actual budgetary effect. As a result, something super embarrassing happened—people started asking why the
State's lottery wasn't paying out lotto wins above $25,000.00. The reason is the Gov. Rauner and his cronies can't balance a budget. What do you do if you're a conservative shill for corporations who keeps getting called out for being sort of shit at your job?
You fire people with minimal power so that your constituency thinks you are getting things done.
The Administration of Governor Bruce Rauner announced today it has reached a termination agreement with Northstar Lottery Group, LLC and its parent companies as the private manager of the Illinois Lottery.
“This deal is an instant win for taxpayers because it immediately saves them $22 million,” General Counsel Jason Barclay said. “In addition, it releases taxpayers from the eleventh-hour deal former Governor Quinn signed on his way out the door.”
It saves the Illinois taxpayer 22 million because no one is doing the job. It's a made up savings. Now, one thing seems to be clear, Northstar Lottery Group does not look like it was doing a
particularly good job of managing the lottery. They had recently tried to attract more lottery players by broadening the payouts and this
didn't work out as planned.
Not only is the state of Illinois failing to make good on payments to Lottery winners, but also a report from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, or COGFA, shows the amount the state paid out in prizes versus what it contributed to the state in revenue dropped by $125 million, even though Lottery sales increased by $39 million.
This marks the first time since fiscal year 2009 that Lottery transfers to the state decreased. The 15 percent revenue-transfer drop happened because the Lottery increased its payout ratio, possibly to encourage people to buy more tickets. That change cost $77 million more in prize payouts and only brought in an additional $39 million in sales. In fiscal year 2015, the Lottery only transferred $8 million to the Capital Projects Fund, a decline of almost 95 percent from the previous fiscal year.
Unfortunately, for the people of Illinois and Governor Rauner, this isn't the real problem. The real problem is that, like many states in the Union, corporate tax breaks, privatization, and a general lack of accountability for the private sector has resulted in budget issues. The market crash of 2008 only laid bare what was already a profound issue between funding for social services and funding for the rich.
Firing Northstar by Governor Rauner is the political equivalent of the baseball player beating up his helmet after he strikes out—maybe the helmet is a stupid head, but that's not really why you struck out, now it is?