In Reversal, SEIU Backs California Lottery Borrowing

Joe Mathews — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:11:00 -0400

Yvonne Walker, president of Service Employees International Union Local 1000, which represents state workers, writes in the Sacramento Bee that her union has changed its mind about Gov. Schwarzenegger's plans to modernize the lottery and borrow against future revenues. Once opponents, she says the union now supports the plan. And she's right. Borrowing against the lottery revenue is not a good thing. But, in the absence of the kind of top-to-bottom tax and budget reform California needs, such borrowing may be the least bad option, as I argued recently in the Los Angeles Times. The lottery, by the way, was established in California by ballot initiative.