Lottery bill moved to Senate floor
By Kathy Helms-Hughes
STAR STAFF
khelms@starhq.com
The week before the Easter holiday was relatively
quiet in Nashville, but some advancement was made in the Tennessee
General Assembly toward working out details on a state lottery.
"The Senate Finance Committee, the other day,
did send it out to the floor of the Senate in a way that we
wanted," said state Sen. Rusty Crowe, R-Johnson City. The
committee equalized the amount of money which would be distributed
to students, regardless of whether they attend public or private
school.
"If you go to Milligan College, you're going
to get the same $4,000 that you get to go to ETSU [East Tennessee
State University]. We got that worked out," he said.
Each student would be eligible to receive the
money if they maintained a "B" average. "You have to have
a 3.0 grade average and a 19 on your ACT," said Crowe.
The Senate Finance Committee also took the cap
off of the income level, "so that if you and your husband
make $100,000, you still get the $4,000. When people voted
on that, millionaires voted to pass it; it didn't say that
if you're rich, you didn't get it.
"If your child works hard and gets a B average,
they get it," Crowe said.
On Nov. 5, 2002, Tennessee citizens voted to
remove the state constitutional prohibition of a state lottery,
thereby granting the General Assembly the authority to create
one.
