Sigh, politics ...

FOREWARNING: I didn't intend for it to, but this post turned into a lottery rant. Sorry. If you're sick to death of hearing my opinion on that, just check back for a new topic tomorrow.

I've been too depressed to comment on the trial of Don Siegelman (former AL Gov.) and Richard Scrushy (former HealthSouth exec who just happened to find religion just in time to save himself from a federal conviction in his last trial), but I can't let this story pass without comment.

A little background (in case you're not local): While Siegelman was governor he kept getting all these lucky breaks. His house sold for something like double its appraised value, motorcycles and 4-wheelers just happened to end up being given to him for no reason, etc. What makes it really lucky for old Don is that bunches of people associated with his administration have ended up convicted of or pleading guilty to various forms of influence peddling. Poor old Don (much like Ken Lay at Enron) was just an innocent victim of the "bad seeds" around him. Now the feds, mad that Scrushy slipped away in an unbelievable jury verdict last year, have gone after Don for supposedly "selling" a seat on a state hospital board to Scrushy for a $500,000 donation to his failed lottery campaign. Mind you all of this is alleged, nothing has been proven, etc.

Anyway, today's story focuses on the testimony of a former Siegelman fundraiser:

Former Gov. Don Siegelman's fund-raiser said it struck him as strange when the governor suddenly showed up in 1999 with a $250,000 lottery donation from a mysterious Maryland company.

Siegelman explained the check was from HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy, Darin Cline testified Monday in the government corruption case. Also unusual, Cline said, was that Siegelman later said he was returning the check but didn't do it.

Evidently this was unusual enough that a professional fundraiser decided to sit on a $250,000 check because, "no one in the campaign knew who the company was or why a Maryland outfit would care about a lottery in Alabama." Hmm, why indeed?

The blatant sleeze is bad enough, but what's this fundraiser guy's final opinion about all the shenanigans he witnessed?

But on cross-examination, Cline said he personally never witnessed Siegelman doing anything improper in his fund raising, and considered him the best governor Alabama has ever had.

That's right, folks, this is THE BEST GOVERNOR ALABAMA HAS EVER HAD! I find that sentiment too depressing for words.

Of course all this would just be politics as normal (unfortunately) except that now old Don is running for Governor AGAIN! Is he going to let a little thing like a federal corruption trial stop him? NO! According to Don, it's all a political ploy by (current) Gov. Riley who, by the way, stole the last election from Siegelman in the first place.

Okay, okay, innocent until proven guilty and all that. Don must have some smashing new ideas for state government now, right? I mean why else would he jump back into a race for a position he was asked to leave in the last election? Here's the meat and potatoes of his platform (as far as I can tell): LET'S HAVE A LOTTERY!

Uh, Don, that was exactly the same platform you had before. I hated the idea so much then I had to hold my nose and vote for Fob James (something I'm REALLY not proud of) and I hate it just as much now. The people of AL apparently liked your idea enough to elect you, but they then defeated the lottery proposal when it came to a vote -- I still haven't figured out the logic behind that one.

So does Don have a new way of selling the lottery idea? No, he's still spouting the same ideas about funding scholarships like Georgia. I will save the full on lottery rant for another day, but just in case any of you have forgotten -- the "hugely successful" GA HOPE Scholarship program isn't quite as successful as some would claim. Cornwell and Mustard (from UGA) have a page devoted to research on some of the "surprising" outcomes. Among their findings:

1. There was a statewide increase in HS GPA after 1993 (when HOPE was introduced) with a big spike at the B level (the requirement to get a scholarship), yet state SAT scores did not show a similar improvement. I think we can all figure out that one.
2. The majority (approx. 2/3) of the gain (only about 6% total) in GA higher ed enrollments apparently comes from tempting folks who would have gone out of state to stay home. That is, it's not really doing much for the overall number of Georgians who go to (or at least finish) college.
3. What do folks do with all the tuition savings? Well one of their papers seems to show a big increase in car registrations in counties that got a lot of HOPE scholarships. In other words, Junior now gets a new car rather than a college education from the folks. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's not a sign that kids are going to college who wouldn't have been able to do so otherwise.
4. So HOPE doesn't really put more kids in school, but maybe it's still worthwhile if it can help students graduate without crippling financial burdens, right? Well, maybe, if not for my personal favorite, who gets the benefit and who pays the cost? "Counties with relatively large shares of African Americans, low-income and poorly educated people spend relatively more on lottery tickets, and bear the largest share of the implicit lottery tax burden." Further, "Scholarships are more likely to be awarded to counties with higher per capita incomes, thus exacerbating the difference from the lottery sales." In other words, the highly touted HOPE program is a wealth transfer FROM the poor TO the middle- and upper-classes.

I'm way too much of a "free will libertarian" to tell anyone not to support a lottery, but I will tell people not to support a lottery as a way to help the poor! Okay, okay, I've got to get back to grading. I just wanted, once again, to rail on this.